All,
The overwhelming uptake of GoogleMaps "hacks" or "mashups" in the past 6
months is truly breathtaking. When things started to debut, I was certain I
had the business model pegged - they would hook and tease everyone with
"free" use (even though many commercial ventures are using googlemaps in
clear violation of the terms of use, google has effective turned a blind eye
to this), and then after some time passed, and businesses have built their
revenue streams around GoogleMaps, Google would turn on them and start
extracting subscription or other fees for commercial use of GoogleMaps
(remember, content and IT infrastructure is NOT cheap). Well,
notwithstanding the continued impressive results of Google's bottom-line, my
thoughts about this initial assumption have changed.
It's my opinion that Google will continue to add content, and eventually
make GoogleEarth free too, and never charge a fee for it, even for
industrial strength, commercial "for-profit" applications. They will
however, even if not yet determined, find a business model that involves
advertising revenues, that will "pay" for all this, and they will simply
ignore anyone using GoogleMaps in a commercial application.
So, what's wrong with this picture? Nothing. However, Redlands (CA),
Huntsville (AL), San Rafael (CA) and Troy (NY) are no-doubt paying very
close attention to Google. I could see one or more of the big GIS ISVs
being "assimilated" into Google in the next 18 months, if for nothing else
than to acquire content and/or eliminate competitors. MapQuest, Yahoo, MSN
VirtualEarth, and others also have had to really sit up and take notice of
google's geospatial initiatives, and the impending, if not announced,
integration of all the other existing and proposed tools, because, as we
know, everything important in today's global climate is about location. It
doesn't take a Phd (ok, google has a couple thousand...) to see the
"landscape" of google's strategy coming into crystal clear focus in the not
to distant future.
What we don't see in the landscape are things like "desktop GIS", "GIS", or
even "OGC" [note to the faithful: not a dig], and so, what will we [as an
entrenched, slow moving, traditional industry] do when the only place people
go (practically speaking) for anything geospatial will be the virtual
(mammoth) googleplex... ?
Anthony
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