Posts tagged Maps
Google Fined in France Because Google Maps is Free
Feb 2nd
A Paris court has ordered Google France and parent company Google Inc. to pay €500,000 ($660,000) in damages, after a two year court battle with French mapping company Bottin Cartographes over their unfair competition complaint.
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French Court Fines Google $660,000 Because Google Maps Is Free
Feb 1st
Google faces a $660,000 fine after a French court ruling that the company is abusing its dominant position in mapping by making Google Maps free. According to The Economic Times, the French commercial court “upheld an unfair competition complaint lodged by Bottin Cartographes against Google…
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Google Maps vs. Do-It-Yourself: Which Is Better for Business?
Jan 27th
As mobile becomes normal for the Web, location becomes key. The next phase of location apps are live, right there with the user as she goes about her business. When it comes to mapping the outside world, the space is pretty crowded. It’s hard to argue with Google Maps, whose free consumer service powers the maps on both dominant smartphone platforms. For businesses, it’s crucial to be on the map, and Google Places can’t be overlooked.
But there’s another frontier of mobile mapping that matters, and the exploration has just begun. Indoor mapping of big buildings – like airports, convention centers, museums and stores – is the El Dorado of mobile location. Google has begun its expedition inside buildings, and businesses can sign up and offer their floor plans. But there’s another option: Use a platform like Meridian and build your own inside map. Which is better for business?
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Google Maps: Just Hand ‘Em The Plans
Google launched interior maps in November. It’s currently only available on Google Maps for Android. When it launched, it came with a bunch of partners, and it offered any business owner the ability to submit a floor plan for inclusion. After that, the business owner doesn’t have to do a thing except submit updated plans if things change. Google handles the rest.
Business owners have enough to think about, so letting a service provider handle all this mapping stuff could be a convenient choice. Google has a vested interest in presenting the most attractive local business listings it can. But are they always the most accurate? In October, Google decided to take responsibility for updating business listings into its own hands, asking owners about changes only after the fact.
If you need fine-grained control over how your business appears online, you might want a more custom solution.
Meridian: Roll Your Own Map
When a location releases an app built with Meridian, it’s a grand affair. It announces partners one at a time, such as the launch of the Oregon Convention Center app yesterday. Unlike Google, Meridian is in start-up mode, but it raised $1 million last year on the premise that the best location-based business apps are built by the businesses themselves.
Meridian has offered consumers interior mapping longer than Google has, but only for a few participating locations. That’s not a shortcoming, though; Meridian is a platform. For consumers, it’s an app that lets them navigate inside favorite museums, stadiums and stores (currently mostly in Meridian’s hometown of Portland, Ore.). But for businesses, it’s a way to build and control a 3D interior map of their own location and offer a custom-branded app for it.
It has its own Web-based editing tools, so owners can move around contents of the map like store displays or museum exhibits. You can include audio tours or featured products that display prominently for the user. It will even push pertinent information to the customer’s device.
How Should Businesses Handle Maps?
If you own or work for a business with a building you want mapped for smartphones, think about priorities. Is it better for you to ship off location data to a service provider who will handle it for you, or would you rather have constant control over the experience? Do you just need to be on the map, or would you like to build the app?
Whichever option makes the most sense for you, it’s exciting to have such choices. The power of the mobile Web to enhance the world for users and raise the profile of local businesses is only just starting to kick in.
Which location-based services do you use, whether for work or for fun?
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Google Maps Adds Emergency Alerts
Jan 27th
If a major storm is headed you way, Google wants to be your information guide. The Google Crisis Response team is looking to be your go to information source on when a storm will strike, how bad will it be, and what resources are available to help.
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Emergency In Your Area? “Public Alerts” On Google Maps Shows Warnings
Jan 25th
Google announced a new layer of data being added to Google Maps for public alerts. If there are emergency alerts in your area, Google will show them to you on the map, with more details on the alert. You can access it over at google.org/publicalerts. The map will load with a layer of data on [...]
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Google Maps Now With Public Alerts Layer
Jan 25th
Google announced a new layer of data being added to Google Maps for public alerts. If there are emergency alerts in your area, Google will show them to you on the map, with more details on the alert. You can access it over at google.org/publicalerts. The map will load with a layer of data on [...]
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Nokia Now “Powering” Bing Maps
Jan 19th
In May of last year I had a conversation with someone who told me that Nokia Maps (Navteq) would effectively replace the infrastructure behind Bing Maps. I was surprised to say the least and wrote about it in a story entitled Bing Maps To Be Powered (Replaced) By Nokia? The impression I got is that…
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Google Maps Now Highlighting Borders Of Cities, Postal Codes & More
Jan 19th
Google Maps has added a feature where it will highlight in a pink color the borders of a city, postal code or other borders based on your search. To see it yourself, go to Google Maps and search for a city name or even a zip code. You will see a pinkish highlight around the [...]
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AllTrails Partners With NatGeo Maps After Google’s “Fall From Grace”
Jan 18th
National Geographic Maps has partnered with AllTrails, an online network for outdoor enthusiasts, to launch a co-branded service at alltrails.com. The site aims to be a comprehensive destination for people planning hikes or other backcountry outings. Its 200,000 users can browse nearby or search for trails, post reviews and photos and share trails with friends. Users who have completed a trail are listed on its page.
Trail profiles give time and distance measurements, weather forecasts and routes overlaid on topographic maps. AllTrails initially used Google Maps data but found it to be too inaccurate for safe planning of wilderness trips. After Google began to charge for access to the Google Maps SDK, AllTrails began to explore other partnerships. Today’s announcement with National Geographic is the beginning of an integration that will move AllTrails away from Google.
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After Google announced they would charge for developer access to Maps, AllTrails founder/CEO Russell Cook says that “a handful of projects were kicked off to improve the open source alternatives but there wasn’t nearly as much activity as I expected.”
After Google revealed the pricing in Q4 of 2011, Cook says “things kicked into high gear.” The pricing was “significantly higher than I think anyone anticipated,” Cook says. “Most publishers are lucky to consistently monetize their site traffic at $1 CPM, let alone be able to build profitable business models while paying Google $4 CPM for mapping.”
“Deep down I think the developer community knew that at some point the Google APIs they were using would stop being free,” Cook says, “but I don’t think they ever expected the price gouging. My personal opinion is that Google has every right to charge for the services they are providing but their recent actions have been very short sighted.”
Even before Google announced it would charge for access, AllTrails was reevaluating its mapping tools. “We found Google Maps to at times be wildly inaccurate,” Cook says, “which is something our audience can’t afford when out in the wilderness.” By licensing mapping content from National Geographic, AllTrails has begun to move away from Google.
National Geographic’s TOPO! allows AllTrails to overlay detailed topographic maps of terrain. Currently, AllTrails still uses Google Maps for its core services, but Cook looks forward to “some of the very exciting projects the Bing team will be releasing this year.”
AllTrails is available on the Web at alltrails.com. Its smartphone app is also available on the iTunes App Store and Android Market.
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CES 2012: Find All The Gadgets With Google Maps for Android
Jan 10th
If you’re attending the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) this week and have an Android phone, you’ll be able to use Google Maps to navigate inside the Las Vegas Convention Center. Select resorts and casinos on the Las Vegas strip are also covered, as is McCarran International Airport.
Google has also partnered with some Las Vegas-area Best Buy stores, so it can guide gadget-addled convention-goers straight to the cash register. Today’s update also releases the floor plans of some of the first locations submitted to Google.
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The update to Google Maps for Android that launched in November contains indoor maps of participating locations. Google is extending its mobile reach until it can be the end-to-end provider of finding what its users are looking for, period.
There’s a mobile arms race heating up here. Apple’s Siri intelligent search assistant on the iPhone 4S skips Google and goes to Yelp when you search for a local place or business. Apple has also been snapping up 3D mapping technology. Meanwhile, Bing Maps has provided inside mapping since August of last year.
Mobile mapping inside buildings is an important trend, but Google has an advantage of scale. As the map provider for the biggest smartphone platform and the iPhone (for now), the majority of smartphone users are comfortable with Google Maps.
To understand the value of this strategy, look no further than Google’s partnerships with Las Vegas-area Best Buy stores during CES. Google has a piece of every step of the sales process except the cash itself, and it wants in on that, too.
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