Springtime Budget-Busters -- Savings Experiment
Score a Great Deal During Memorial Day Sales -- Savings ExperimentThis post is part of our Hottest Products of 2007 feature. Also check out our other Hottest Products of 2007 posts and let us know which product you think is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
2007 may go down as the year people's perceptions of what a map is changed forever, and proved the value of user-generated content. Much of that sea change can be credited to Google Maps.
Maps -- for centuries static, analog pieces of information -- have gone digital, allowing us to add layer upon layer of additional information, in a variety that strains imagination. For example:
- Maps that contain links to photographs of the noted location. If you want to know what the intersection of the Dawson and Dempster highways in Alaska looks like, you might find it on a Google Map. (Hint: There's a big sign warning hunters that it is illegal to leave gut piles within 1 km of the road).
- Fans of the writer Patrick O'Brian (such as myself), can refer to a user-generated Google Map tracing the travels of his heroes Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin.
- Followers of the television show The Amazing Race can track the participants' progress on a Google Map.
- The Los Angeles Times created a Google map for readers to track the progress of the recent outburst of wildfires.
- A runner in the New York Marathon created a Google Map updated from the BlackBerry in his pocket that allowed his friends to track his progress along the route.
- American Airlines created a map that guided its customers to locations where they could make purchases that added points to their frequent flyer accounts.
The beauty of Google Maps is several fold: ease of use, ease of distribution, the ability to layer in information regardless of format (spreadsheets, databases, photos, video, music), at no cost. Google Maps is perhaps the best example of the incredible potential of user-generated content.
One more advantage -- when you're done, you don't have to figure out how to refold the damn things.
If you've had some experience with this product, let us know about it. Or if you know of something else that you think is one of the Hottest Products of 2007, feel free to tell us about that as well.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-21-2007 @ 6:44PM
Janeg said...
What’s really going to be interesting to observe in the next few years is the Gphone makes all media more ubiquitous, and how that ubiquity will impact company profits. That can benefit both consumers and investors. The NewsVisual article on Google’s Open Handset Alliance http://www.newsvisual.com/newsvisual/2007/11/google-and-moto.html implies that it’s really personal connections among business leaders that determine future success in the competitive marketplace. But consumers can also benefit from the new products those alliances spawn.
11-24-2007 @ 1:38PM
Will said...
Google maps are fantastic! I love them. Back when I started my life as a land surveyor I had to draft maps for a living.
11-25-2007 @ 12:22PM
Andrew Hockly said...
Yes, and being available out here in South Africa is brilliant. The options are easy and fun and definately has a future. Check out this one.
Orange River Rafting at Augrabies to adventure trips all along the Lower Orange or !Gariep. This has been put together on Google Maps and may be viewed as an overlay on Google Earth. Amazing what software and a bit of broadband can do. Check it out!
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=111064602631317211234.00043f64b19f553b9b1c2&ll=-28.15919,19.401855&spn=4.067504,6.965332&z=7&om=1
12-19-2007 @ 10:04AM
justme said...
Obviously I'm missing something. I followed the link and I poked around Google Maps and I don't see what you're talking about nor do I see any mention nor allusion to what you're talking about. Just the same plain one-dimensional map that still can't find much of anything around my area, including my house. ;) Which is a good thing, actually.
12-31-2007 @ 6:31PM
Sheryl said...
I've tried looking for all the "enhancements" on Google Maps, too and I can't find anything new about it. Still the same old flat boring map. Give me something new, too, Google! At least a clue would be nice.