A few months ago, we told you about how Sir Richard Branson had convinced Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to use Google Earth to search for lost aviator Steve Fossett. Which seemed like a noble goal, until you realized that Branson’s home on his private Necker Island is blocked on Google Earth (pictured). It’s okay for Google to violate your privacy with their planet-mapping efforts, as long as you’re not a billionaire buddy of Larry and Sergey. And their satellite data is updated often enough for them to think they could find a lost plane, but not often enough to detect that cloud moving away from Branson’s house.

The Google search didn’t work, but the effort has continued anyway because Fossett’s really rich. Or, I should say, was:

Authorities said Thursday morning that the wreckage initially spotted by aerial searchers is the plane piloted by missing adventurer Steve Fossett, not seen since he took off from an airstrip at an isolated ranch in the Nevada desert some 13 months ago.

CNN announced Thursday’s confirmation. No human remains were found…

The news comes after hiker Preston Morrow said that on Monday he found three identification cards bearing Fossett’s name and $1,005 cash in a bush just west of the town of Mammoth Lakes.

“It was just weird to find that much money in the backcountry, and the IDs,” said Morrow. “My immediate thought was it was a hiker or backpacker’s stuff, and a bear got to the stuff and took it away to look for food or whatever.”

Unless he’s pulling a D.B. Cooper or something, it doesn’t look good.

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