Google Maps mash
Web 2.0 is a really big buzzword thee days, and some industry pundits argue that information is the currency of the new web. One company that has built a business on leveraging information is Google. Probably the best example of this information brokering is Google Maps which has come from nowhere to become the online mapping tool of choice. And how did it gain this status? The reason, I think, is two-fold:
Firstly Google made a better interface than eveyone else. Just as GMail allowed a lot of people who were tired of the pitiful webmail interfaces and suffered using Outlook, move back to webmail. Similarly using AJAX Google Map’s user experience eclipses all others.
Secondly, they have an open API which allow others to take the mapping data and enhance it with their own data, known as a “mash-up”. There are two ways to achieve stickiness as the market leading information broker is a certain field, one is to lock up the data so nobody else can broker it (MapQuests big mistake as the incumbant webmap of choice before Google bought rights to the same data); the second is to open the data up to let others make it better (which in turn means you don’t have to be the only one innovating). The Google Map’s API is probably the most exploited example of this, which has already been used for some interesting, although potentially contentious, mash-ups:
- HousingMaps overlaying CraigsList property rental and sales ads
- Google Maps NYC subway stations
- Map Sex Offenders