Google "mash-ups"
Google spies ad gold with Maps
By Peter Howe
The Age - July 11, 2005
Google isn't one to take its eye off a lucrative advertising opportunity when it spies one - especially when that opportunity has global implications. And that's exactly what the online information search giant sees in its satellite mapping browser, Google Maps.
Google launched the feature in February, letting web surfers pull up maps and satellite images of virtually any neighbourhood in America. Unlike services from MapQuest.com and Yahoo that are limited to presenting information authorised by the portal - such as locations of pizza shops or bank machines - Google Maps let people plug in their own data.
Users quickly rolled out what became dubbed 'Google mash-ups,' using lists of apartments for rent and petrol prices to create services that let web users instantly generate maps of the closest cheap gas or pricey apartments.
As of last week, Google went from tolerating these services to actively promoting them. Hoping to unleash a wave of digital map-making creativity Google began publicising the full version of the so-called application program interface for Google Maps that hackers had already begun figuring out to build their own services.
It's a move that suggests Google is thinking there are lucrative new advertising opportunities.
'We certainly can't think of all the innovative things we can do with maps,' says Bret Taylor, product manager for Google Maps. 'There's already sort of an ad hoc community out there using Maps, and this really formalises it.'
Among other things, publicising the programming interface will help websites that have built services on Google Maps keep them operating smoothly. In the United Kingdom, for example, a site called dynamite.co.uk used Google Maps to offer a service that can show the locations of all current traffic jams and accidents around London.
And it's not only Americans or Brits who can see what's going on. Google quietly extended its map feature to Australia about a month ago, and this could be a potential competitor to existing Australian map services provided by the likes of UBD and Sensis.
Besides conventional maps and satellite images, Google recently began making available - through a site called Google Earth - enhanced versions of what it calls three-dimensional maps. This feature correlates map grids with city skylines and topographical contours.
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If these mash-ups interest you, you will find in the bulleted listings under Google (in the sidebar) those mashups that I believe [the] most interesting.
For example, Live Concerts is an excellent mash-up that displays locations of live concerts. It shows all active tours in North America plotted on the map, and listed down the sidebar. Then display all cities where that group or artist is touring, or view all concerts by month, day or year.
By Peter Howe
The Age - July 11, 2005
Google isn't one to take its eye off a lucrative advertising opportunity when it spies one - especially when that opportunity has global implications. And that's exactly what the online information search giant sees in its satellite mapping browser, Google Maps.
Google launched the feature in February, letting web surfers pull up maps and satellite images of virtually any neighbourhood in America. Unlike services from MapQuest.com and Yahoo that are limited to presenting information authorised by the portal - such as locations of pizza shops or bank machines - Google Maps let people plug in their own data.
Users quickly rolled out what became dubbed 'Google mash-ups,' using lists of apartments for rent and petrol prices to create services that let web users instantly generate maps of the closest cheap gas or pricey apartments.
As of last week, Google went from tolerating these services to actively promoting them. Hoping to unleash a wave of digital map-making creativity Google began publicising the full version of the so-called application program interface for Google Maps that hackers had already begun figuring out to build their own services.
It's a move that suggests Google is thinking there are lucrative new advertising opportunities.
'We certainly can't think of all the innovative things we can do with maps,' says Bret Taylor, product manager for Google Maps. 'There's already sort of an ad hoc community out there using Maps, and this really formalises it.'
Among other things, publicising the programming interface will help websites that have built services on Google Maps keep them operating smoothly. In the United Kingdom, for example, a site called dynamite.co.uk used Google Maps to offer a service that can show the locations of all current traffic jams and accidents around London.
And it's not only Americans or Brits who can see what's going on. Google quietly extended its map feature to Australia about a month ago, and this could be a potential competitor to existing Australian map services provided by the likes of UBD and Sensis.
Besides conventional maps and satellite images, Google recently began making available - through a site called Google Earth - enhanced versions of what it calls three-dimensional maps. This feature correlates map grids with city skylines and topographical contours.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If these mash-ups interest you, you will find in the bulleted listings under Google (in the sidebar) those mashups that I believe [the] most interesting.
For example, Live Concerts is an excellent mash-up that displays locations of live concerts. It shows all active tours in North America plotted on the map, and listed down the sidebar. Then display all cities where that group or artist is touring, or view all concerts by month, day or year.
posted by David M Gordon | 6:02 PM
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