India, South Korea, Thailand, the Netherlands and a few other countries have expressed concern about the quality of satellite images on Google Maps and their potential use by terrorist groups. Maybe Google is trying to be the new Microsoft.

Apparently, not everyone is excited about the way in which Google Maps may change the world. Wired magazine has an article (India: Google Maps Too Graphic, originally titled Google Terror Maps) discussing how security officials in several countries such as India and South Korea are concerned about the possible misuse of Google map data. In particular, security officials are concerned that too much detail is available on sensitive targets in these countries and that terrorists may use it to plot terrorist acts. This is a difficult argument to prove, but I am sure politicians in those countries are similar to politicians in the U.S. and thus this will help avoid more serious political issues.