Google's MyMaps

Google Maps MyMaps - Stealing a great deal of thunder from Platial's Mapmaker, Google introduces a make a map feature. Just beginning to play with it but am really impressed. Here is what Platial has to say about it on their blog.

This morning Google launched MyMaps and with typical blogospheric drama (which I adore) predictions of the fall of mash-ups were made. Here's my take...

This kind of disruption was inevitable.
There is a rapidly growing geospatial web and they have in many ways elevated the importance of it.

While no entrepreneur is excited about potentially competing with Google, it had to happen. This is an indicator of something very interesting in new kinds of collaborative business models. For example; apis in and out and remixing. There are a number of friend/foe relationships that spring up when you have alliances and markets with rapidly evolving needs. Our business will be disrupted too in some ways but it was time.

We needed a new conversation to get us beyond the limiting concept of mash-ups. A year ago many of our services looked the same but now you see differentiation start to emerge. As well Google has (for now) carved a small/clear piece of this and hasn't entered into the community aspects. For now, we need to count ourselves among the Google friend/foes which are rapidly increasing!

They haven't (yet) touched the core of our business model, audience or product path. So, here we go onward (but faster and better). :)

They also have some criticism off the new product. I had always thought that Platial would just be bought by Google.

I have a small one as well. It won't let you embed   audio or video (at least I can't figure out how). I signed up with Hipcast this morning so I could create a tour of the Tenderloin putting up the CityReads tracks we recorded three years ago, but it won't let me embed their player.

This morning Google launched MyMaps and with typical blogospheric drama (which I adore) predictions of the fall of mash-ups were made. Here's my take...

This kind of disruption was inevitable.
There is a rapidly growing geospatial web and they have in many ways elevated the importance of it.

While no entrepreneur is excited about potentially competing with Google, it had to happen. This is an indicator of something very interesting in new kinds of collaborative business models. For example; apis in and out and remixing. There are a number of friend/foe relationships that spring up when you have alliances and markets with rapidly evolving needs. Our business will be disrupted too in some ways but it was time.

We needed a new conversation to get us beyond the limiting concept of mash-ups. A year ago many of our services looked the same but now you see differentiation start to emerge. As well Google has (for now) carved a small/clear piece of this and hasn't entered into the community aspects. For now, we need to count ourselves among the Google friend/foes which are rapidly increasing!

They haven't (yet) touched the core of our business model, audience or product path. So, here we go onward (but faster and better). :)

They also have some criticism off the new product. I had always thought that Platial would just be bought by Google.

I have a small one as well. It won't let you embed   audio or video (at least I can't figure out how). I signed up with Hipcast this morning so I could create a tour of the Tenderloin putting up the CityReads tracks we recorded three years ago, but it won't let me embed their player.