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Google Maps' Moat

justinobeirne.com

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Re: Google Maps' Moat

#11

Post by todd3834 »

ajkjk wrote: post #9

Things like this make me think that it's a shame humanity is duplicating all this work instead of collaborating to do it once. One of the awkward failures of capitalism, I guess. At least when your product is something physical you end up with twice as many outputs. When it's just data you just do the same work twice.

Isn't open street maps exactly that? I guess the shame is that big corporations don't all contribute to that rather than try to compete? It is a thought provoking idea but I struggle to see which side I prefer. I think competition is one of the things that drives innovation.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#12

Post by lquist »

ajkjk wrote: post #9

Things like this make me think that it's a shame humanity is duplicating all this work instead of collaborating to do it once. One of the awkward failures of capitalism, I guess. At least when your product is something physical you end up with twice as many outputs. When it's just data you just do the same work twice.

I think I understand what you mean but I think that is actually the proper functioning of capitalism not a failure. If Apple/TomTom/etc. didn’t create maps, Google wouldn’t invest resources in making theirs better.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#13

Post by clement75009 »

ajkjk wrote: post #9

Things like this make me think that it's a shame humanity is duplicating all this work instead of collaborating to do it once. One of the awkward failures of capitalism, I guess. At least when your product is something physical you end up with twice as many outputs. When it's just data you just do the same work twice.

As the article shows, there's always some subjectivity in mapping. It is essential that there be competition and different approaches to that enormous task.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#14

Post by arikrak »

ajkjk wrote: post #9

Things like this make me think that it's a shame humanity is duplicating all this work instead of collaborating to do it once. One of the awkward failures of capitalism, I guess. At least when your product is something physical you end up with twice as many outputs. When it's just data you just do the same work twice.

You can say that about every single instance of competition. Yet when governments run things they don't generally do as good a job...

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#15

Post by mcrady »

0003 wrote: post #8
jld wrote: post #7

Google Maps is my pick for the coolest website on the internet. Truly a killer app.

Can maps be a killer app?

I launched Google Maps for mobile in 2005. In 2006, Eric Schmidt was worried that Yahoo Go was a killer app. My claim that Google Maps was the real killer app fell on deaf ears. :)

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#16

Post by chaostheory »

I'm still wondering why Waze doesn't incorporate Google Maps data and Google Maps doesn't incorporate Waze traffic data? Or does this already happen since Google has owned Waze for a while now? If not, I find it strange for the two to continue to be silo'd.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#17

Post by drewda »

ajkjk wrote: post #9

Things like this make me think that it's a shame humanity is duplicating all this work instead of collaborating to do it once. One of the awkward failures of capitalism, I guess. At least when your product is something physical you end up with twice as many outputs. When it's just data you just do the same work twice.

Agreed! That's a big reason why I've enjoyed working with colleagues on a fully "open" approach to mapping software and data at Mapzen: https://mapzen.com/blog/our-magna-carto/

We've made much use of:

- http://www.openstreetmap.org/

- https://openaddresses.io/

And founded efforts like:

- https://transit.land

- https://whosonfirst.mapzen.com/

- https://aws.amazon.com/public-datasets/terrain/

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#18

Post by stvswn »

ajkjk wrote: post #9

Things like this make me think that it's a shame humanity is duplicating all this work instead of collaborating to do it once. One of the awkward failures of capitalism, I guess. At least when your product is something physical you end up with twice as many outputs. When it's just data you just do the same work twice.

Competition is a feature, not a bug -- you're recalling a trope that has been a reactionary criticism to Adam Smith for centuries now, and was a core tenet of Marx's ideas -- that with a little central planning, there wouldn't be all of this effort wasted on competition. The original communists really believed that a planned economy would be more efficient once enacted. The fascists believed in the same basic inefficiency argument, but they thought that the government could control it while stil maintaining private property and traditional social structures. In comparison to those two, neoliberal economic theory has done pretty well for itself.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#19

Post by ceejayoz »

0003 wrote: post #8
jld wrote: post #7

Google Maps is my pick for the coolest website on the internet. Truly a killer app.

Can maps be a killer app?

It was pretty mindblowing when it came out, and was the first instance I recall encountering meaningful usage of AJAX.

Re: Google Maps' Moat

#20

Post by guelo »

mcrady wrote: post #15
0003 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can maps be a killer app?

I launched Google Maps for mobile in 2005. In 2006, Eric Schmidt was worried that Yahoo Go was a killer app. My claim that Google Maps was the real killer app fell on deaf ears. :)

If Schmidt's worry about Yahoo Go led to Google's purchase of Android Inc. around the same time frame then I would say you were both right.
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