Branson hopes to trace Fossett with Google images
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British billionaire Richard  Branson said on Wednesday he was hoping to trace Steve Fossett  through a satellite mapping service offered by Internet data  provider Google as the search for the missing U.S. adventurer  resumed.
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(InfoWorld) - Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk is enlisting human eyes to help in an online search for missing adventurer Steve Fossett. Mechanical Turk is a Web service hosted by Amazon that lets anyone combine human intelligence with computer programs. The site aims to make up for a specific failure that persists in computers. "Humans still significantly outperform the most powerful computers at completing such simple tasks as identifying objects in photographs -- something children can do even before they learn to speak," the site explains. Friends of Fossett have set up a project on Mechanical Turk that could help identify the location of his airplane. Fossett set out in the plane in Nevada on Sept. 3 and hasn't been heard from since. Anyone can visit the Mechanical Turk site and lend a hand. Instructions on the page ask participants to view satellite images within Google Earth of the region where Fossett is thought to be. If they see anything that might resemble the airplane, they can mark the satellite image as containing an object that should be looked at more closely. Participants are asked to mark an image if they are at all suspicious that it contains something of interest. The project also cautions people not to worry that missing a detail will be tragic, because many people will look at the same image. Marked images will be further examined by experts. Mechanical Turk was also enlisted in the hunt for Jim Gray, a prominent computer scientist who went missing after setting off on his sail boat earlier this year. He has not been found. The Fossett effort also includes airplane and helicopter searchers. Fossett is well-known for being the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refueling and also for making it around the world in a balloon. He has set 115 world records or world firsts, has swum the English Channel and completed the Iditarod, a dog sled race in Alaska, according to his Web site. While people helping to hunt for Fossett and Gray are volunteers, other Mechanical Turk projects pay participants, usually less than $0.25 per task. Mechanical Turk isn't the only online service that relies on human intelligence. ChaCha.com, a search engine launched last year, uses human "guides" to provide search results. A user inserts a search term and a remote worker searches for the answer, sending links to Web pages back to the user. The guide may be an expert in the subject the user is searching for so may be able to find better results than other search engines, according to ChaCha. Mahalo.com is another search site that uses people to compile results for common search terms. Workers weed out spam sites, pages with overbearing advertising and sites that use information without giving appropriate credit to the source.
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"Star Trek" star William Shatner and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Dave Navarro are among thousands of people who want to fly on Virgin's proposed commercial space flights, company chief Richard Branson said Friday.
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&quot;Star Trek&quot; star William Shatner and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Dave Navarro are among thousands who want to fly on Virgin&#39;s proposed commercial space flights, company chief Richard Branson said Friday.
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Web surfers may soon be able to  explore the canyons of Mars and experience a virtual flight  over the surface of the moon thanks to a deal announced on  Monday between Web search company Google Inc. and the  NASA Ames Research Center.
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Famed British billionaire and Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson announced Thursday he would earmark an estimated $3 billion over the next 10 years toward fighting global warming.
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Sir Richard Branson&#39;s new venture, Virgin Galactic, follows his signing of a $25 million deal to use technology perfected by the California-based team that made the first privately funded flight
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RENO, Nevada  - The search for missing adventurer  Steve Fossett resumed on Wednesday as his friend, British  billionaire Richard Branson, tried to find him through a  satellite mapping service offered by Google.
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British billionaire Richard Branson unveiled a mockup of his Virgin Galactic civilian spaceship, vowing to do his part to make space travel a reality for millions of people.
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RENO, Nevada  - British billionaire Richard  Branson said on Wednesday he was hoping to trace Steve Fossett  through a satellite mapping service offered by Internet data  provider Google as the search for the missing U.S. adventurer  resumed.
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When the first space vacations are available, Richard Branson will be there selling them. On Sept. 27, Branson&#39;s Virgin announced a partnership with Paul Allen&#39;s Mojave Aerospace Ventures and SpaceShipOne
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Airline mogul and adventurer Richard Branson announced plans Monday to boldly go where no private transport company has gone before &#151; into space.
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Tools from Google Earth and Amazon.com are being applied by users to help in the effort to find missing aviator and adventurer Steve Fossett.
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'Earth to Richard Branson, over...' LogoWatch We at the Vulture Central LogoWatch Soviet have a shameful admission to make this morning: we've been holding off on reporting on the new Virgin Galactic logo in the hope that, in return for our silence, Sir Richard Branson would call and offer us the free space-flight ticket which William Shatner recently turned down.â¦
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Google has applied for a patent for methods and technology that can be used to find and extract text from images.
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Richard Branson, Britain&#39;s best-known entrepreneur and part-time daredevil, plans to launch the world&#39;s first passenger service to space in 2007, offering zero-gravity flights for 110,000 pounds ($198,600).
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A ticket may soon be all that separates you from a dream voyage to the final frontier. British entrepreneur Richard Branson said Virgin company -- which includes an airline -- plans to start offering commercial space flights over the next few years.