[Satellite TODAY 10-19-11] Earth imagery provider GeoEye has signed a multi-year enterprise agreement with Internet search engine and development company Google to license access to its cloud-based map-publishing platform Google Earth Builder, GeoEye announced Oct. 18.

   GeoEye spokesman Tony Frazier said the company is making the investment as part of its strategy to increase online access to its high-resolution color imagery. GeoEye will use Google Earth Builder to deliver a new set of imagery services that aims to allow Google Earth or Google Maps users to access imagery across GeoEye’’s archive.

   “We are committed to investing in initiatives that put GeoEye’s high-resolution imagery into the hands of users as quickly as possible. This new offering will augment the imagery that we currently make available via Google Earth and Google Maps with premium access to our most recent collections and our broader archive that contains over 500 million square kilometers of imagery,” Frazier said in a statement.

   GeoEye also announced it would position these new imagery services as an extension of its EyeQ online access portfolio and launch a new publicly available Google Earth Builder layer to promote the features of the integrated platform.