If I was the Program Manager of ArcExplorer, I would be calling CNN/MSNBC/Fox News/ABC News/CBS News/etc right now and show them a demo of ArcExplorer with some of the great ArcWeb services ESRI has. ArcWeb has better imagery, better weather layers and better road network than Google Earth has and I’m sure many of these news organizations would love to have all this out of the box, rather than rely on a KML/KMZ file from some server in Russia for their hurricane tracking. I would do just about anything to get the ESRI logo in the lower right corner of the TV screens while people are amazed both ArcExplorer and the ArcWeb services on top of that. ESRI only has to point to the years of experience serving up ArcWeb as to how valuable it can be to news organizations.
If leveraged correctly, ArcWeb will be the reason why ArcExplorer will be a success. It won’t be easy, but the choice of services from ESRI has got to be a great marketing tool.