French Geoportail crashes to earth

By Steve Malone

Posted on 26 Jun 2006 at 14:55

The French government sponsored rival to Google Earth has collapsed under the strain, just days after it was launched. The French language service has proved too popular with reports of around 10 million visitors trying to access the site in the first weekend of its debut. The site is currently down with a message to the effect that visitors should try again later.

Geoportail is a joint project between the French National Geographic Institute (the equivalent of the Ordnance Survey) and the Office of Geological and Mineral Research and cost the French taxpayer €6 million to develop collating and cross referencing 3,700 maps and 400,000 aerial photographs and can zoom in to a resolution of 50cm.

The free service has the backing of President Jacques Chirac who says that France must have its own aerial photography and mapping service. It claims to have a more detailed view of French territory than its Google and Microsoft equivalents.

The managers of Geoportail promise the site will be back soon although there are suggestions that they may issues visitors with passwords to try and limit the traffic while they install more bandwidth.