The Walmartization of Technology


“Why pay for anything if Google will eventually give it away free?” This is the question James Fee asks in his blog post about the just-launched Google Maps Navigation (Beta) for Android 2.0 devices.

Lest an unfortunate misunderstanding occurs, James is using sarcasm. I think.

Unless you have been living under a rock (or you are not a GIS geek), you know that in the last couple of weeks Google launched, in rapid succession, several changes to Google Maps and related services. First, Google dropped their data provider, Tele Atlas, in favor of using Google’s own data source. At the same time Google implemented an online system for reporting map errors. Next, Google added parcel boundaries to some areas. And now – free navigation!

A lot has been written on geo blogs and on Twitter about many pesky geodata (quality and other) issues with the new Google Maps. Interestingly, most folks seem to have no problem with the noticeable degradation in Goggle Maps’ data quality, and seem to be (or at least declare to be) happy to provide free feedback to Google to improve the map data quality.

I wonder if Google researched and factored in in this process the willingness of its users to work for Google for free.

Closes Fee:

“Now there are two great limitations on this product.  First it is only on Android which like the Microsoft Zune is irrelevant.  Second it is only available in the USA which means that my friends around the world won’t be able to navigate to amusement parks that closed 25 years ago in their neighborhood.”

Touché!

Posted by Atanas Entchev at 10/28/2009 4:12 PM
Categories: GIS parcels, US, Online Mapping, Data, USA, Twitter, news, Android, Google, parcels, parcel, GIS, Opinion, Business, blog, Tele Atlas, Maps
Tags: GIS parcels US Online Mapping Data USA Twitter news Android Google parcels parcel GIS Opinion Business blog Tele Atlas Maps
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  • 10/28/2009 4:37 PM John Reiser wrote:
    I went along with things and asked Google to update a few areas in Glassboro. Seeing "Glassboro State College" was disconcerting. I did throw in my report to Google that "you could check OSM, because that data is correct for the area."

    http://osm.org/go/ZciXZKpi
  • 10/28/2009 4:49 PM atanas entchev wrote:
    The difference is data ownership, of course. I tried to explain this today to a coworker, a web designer. I didn't get far. Either I am a bad explainer, or she (and most people) don't really care.

    But the same people do care deeply about what Facebook does with data that users volunteer. How is that different? Is it because Facebook is seen as profiting from its users' personal data, and Google is "only" profiting from users' free labor?

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