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Tuesday, March 08, 2005 |
Annotating the planet.
When I finished making the interactive version of my neighborhood tour, along with a screencast,
it was clear that Google Maps is every bit as revolutionary as my first
instincts told me. Not because Google invented a new geospatial engine
or compiled better data. They didn't. But simply -- and yet profoundly
-- because Google Maps is a framework we can all use to annotate the
physical world.
In the very near future, billions of people will be roaming
the planet with GPS devices. Clouds of network connectivity are forming
over our major cities and will inevitably coalesce. The geoaware Web
isn't a product we buy; it's an environment we colonize. There will
always be markets for proprietary data. But the real action will be in
empowering people to create their own services, with their own data,
for their friends, family, and business associates. Google Maps isn't
just a service, it's a service factory.
Radical openness is the key. It's been only two weeks since it
launched and already the colonization has begun. Thanks to open XML
data formats and open Web programming interfaces, people have figured
out how to animate routes, create custom routes with their own GPS
data, and display GPS data in real time.
Microsoft could have enabled these same kinds of things years
ago. Its TerraServer has been up and running since 1998. But despite
Steve Ballmer's infamous monkey-dance chant, developers haven't flocked
to TerraServer. What's Google's secret? Web DNA and no Windows tax.
[Full story at InfoWorld.com]
... [Jon's Radio]
11:54:47 PM  Google It!.
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© Copyright 2005 Bruce Landon.
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