Thursday, May 19, 2005
Google Factory Tour in Stereo
Just sat down to check my feeds, and it feels like half the posts are about today's Google Factory Tour. Amongst those posts I found this entertaining pair, that look like they were posted just a few minutes apart...
Om Malik:
Google executives are on stage talking about how they want to work with developers and help extend Google Maps. Instead of unofficial hacks, they want to make it more formal, so the developers can monetize their efforts. There seems to be a lot of effort behind Google Maps. This was in response to a question posed by someone in the audience. In case you were wondering, Jeff Jarvis has some interesting links.
Marc Hedlund:
I asked about Google Maps hacks, like this week's Chicago Crime site, at the Google Factory Tour. Particularly, I asked if their agreements with Navteq and Tele Atlas, who provide the underlying map data for the service, would require Google to shut down sites that used the map data without Google's permission. They responded that they had every intention to not shut them down as long as their licenses permit it, and one of the engineers insinuated that they might be working on a Google Maps API or a similar way to build on top of Maps (he actually said, "to make them not hacks," by which I think he meant not unauthorized). They also said they hoped that the data licensors would realize that increased traffic benefits them.