I sold my mobile maps startup to Google around the same time and worked closely with the where2 guys. This article sounds like the result of a casual conversation with Noel and not a well researched piece. A number of inaccuracies as far as I can remember. (not blaming Noel to be clear)
The Founding of Google Maps (2015)
21–30 of 47 posts
Re: The Founding of Google Maps (2015)
#22Does anyone remember Microsoft Terraserver? An extremely slow mapping solution that predates Google maps.
I remember using streetmap.co.uk to look at maps in the UK while in secondary school, so it probably pre-dated Google Maps. Looks like it serves tiles styled on Ordnance Survey maps of the country.
Re: The Founding of Google Maps (2015)
#23Not to be confused with Google Earth, which was purchased from Keyhole.
I was about to say. The book about Keyhole, Never Lost Again, is a great read. I burned through it in less than 48 hours.
Re: The Founding of Google Maps (2015)
#24'But Larry Page and Google were not interested in application software. “We like the web,” he is said to have told Lars Rasmussen, one of the Gordon’s fellow co-founders. And he set the team a deadline to get their idea working in a web browser.' Building for web still underrated
Now you can build for Google Amp or Google Play, and soon another of Google's walled gardens, Google Stadia.
Long live the web!
Re: The Founding of Google Maps (2015)
#25For an in-depth visual history of Google Maps, check out Version Museum's coverage (48 images): https://www.versionmuseum.com/history-of/google-maps-website
This is such a cool website! Thanks for sharing
Re: The Founding of Google Maps (2015)
#26I sold my mobile maps startup to Google around the same time and worked closely with the where2 guys. This article sounds like the result of a casual conversation with Noel and not a well researched piece. A number of inaccuracies as far as I can remember. (not blaming Noel to be clear)
> A number of inaccuracies as far as I can remember.
Do you mind clarify these?
Re: The Founding of Google Maps (2015)
#27I was hoping for a little more detail around the beginnings of AJAX. I know it was added to IE to support Outlook in IE but I thought Maps was the first big use of it outside of Outlook.
Whenever people talk about how IE ruined the internet, I think about AJAX. I actually thought IE was great for the web. A poignant example I remember was, if you got a /TR /TD out of order, Netscape wouldn't show the web page at all. It'd work fine in IE though. IE just made it so much easier to move fast in web development. People blast IE, but I really don't think the web would be as good as it is today without it.…
AJAX has been bad for the web. Letting Javascript make requests without explicit user action & vetting of whatever it's sending is basically the reason the web's so messed up and user-hostile.
Re: The Founding of Google Maps (2015)
#28I was hoping for a little more detail around the beginnings of AJAX. I know it was added to IE to support Outlook in IE but I thought Maps was the first big use of it outside of Outlook.
Alex Hopmann (Creator of XMLHttp) used to have a blog post on his site about the history of Ajax. Looks like his site is offline now, but here's an archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170424220609/http://www.alexho...
Re: The Founding of Google Maps (2015)
#29'But Larry Page and Google were not interested in application software. “We like the web,” he is said to have told Lars Rasmussen, one of the Gordon’s fellow co-founders. And he set the team a deadline to get their idea working in a web browser.' Building for web still underrated
Especially by Google. The web as it is meant to be: open standards, without control by any single large entity, a level playing field.
Re: The Founding of Google Maps (2015)
#30Does anyone remember Microsoft Terraserver? An extremely slow mapping solution that predates Google maps.
At the time it was one of the largest publicly accessible datasets.