374Imagine a Geo-Web Without Catalogs

Google Earth with KML search may not be an SDI, but it sure as hell looks like a data or service catalog killer. If every W*S published a KML document like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.1">
  <Document>
    <Feature>
      <LatLonAltBox>
        <north>50.0</north>
        <south>30.0</south>
        <east>-100.0</east>
        <west>-120.0</west>
      </LatLonAltBox>
      <description>
        <![CDATA[
        <h3>Example Web Map Service</h3>
        <p>
          This is a KML feature that points to the web map service
          at example.com.
        </p>
        <p>
          <a
            href="http://example.com/wms/"
            rel="alternate"
            >
            W*S Service Online Resource URL
          </a>
        </p>
        <p>Keywords
          <ul>
            <li>physiography</li>
            <li>hydrography</li>
          </ul>
        </p>
        ]]>
      </description>
      ...
    </Feature>
  </Document>
</kml>

we would be able to discover services using Google Earth, or by searching the index of a yet-to-be-developed, open KML crawler.