General Motors continues to recover from a disastrous 2008 and 2009, and in that respect its latest quarterly numbers indicate it is partially on the way to becoming a consistent profit maker. But, it has a very long road ahead. In converting more shoppers into buyers and taking away from the competition, the automaker will be teaming up with Google Inc. (GOOG) to offer more in-car technology in combination with its existing OnStar service.

Ford Motor Company (F) has had a relationship with Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) for in-car entertainment and calling for years now, so it's good to see GM finally step up its game. It still has a way to go in keeping up with Ford's continual technology announcements, but a partnership with the largest internet brand is a good start. Google will provide its Google Maps navigation product directly onto the OnStar product, and it will initially debut on the upcoming Chevy Volt electric vehicle.

Google (GOOG) changed the game of many global GPS appliance makers this month by announcing a completely free and quite capable GPS product as part of the Motorola Droid handset announced and now being sold by Verizon Wireless.

In what seems to be the norm for Google, it is once again disrupting an entire market by giving something away for free that's both competitive and capable. TomTom and Garmin saw their share prices plummet upon Google's announcement, and rightfully so.

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) recently has had a knack for releasing software products that challenge -- and even threaten -- entire industries. Take, for example, last week's enhancement to Google Maps, which caused the stock prices of GPS companies TomTom and Garmin to plummet after Google announced its own GPS service that, in many ways, was a superior product. Yes, it's free with a Google-powered phone.

What's next? How about real estate listings?

Along with the rest of the tech industry last week, Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) saw its stock price plummet. In the last two weeks, GOOG shares have seen a tailspin of $100 per share knocked off. While that would seem cause for concern for some companies, remember that Google fundamentally is still very strong: very little debt and billions in cash for just about anything it wants.

One thing it appears to want is more advertising revenue. In fact, the company made a move last week that we should all expect to see with the majority of Google's products in the next year or two: ads next to its web services. Starting with Google Maps, the company started supplying text advertising to the bottom of its Google Maps service. Add to that the "click-to-buy" buttons showing up on some YouTube videos and Google seems to be using the trial-and-error method to see how it can expend it advertising revenue reach beyond search.

TechCruch reported that comScore's rating for Google Maps in August was 131 million unique visitors with 1.3 billion page views. It makes sense for Google to tap advertising into this product just based on those number alone. but, it can't just think plugging relevant text ads (as in search) will magically work. Google could stand to get innovative and find a way to really make interactive advertising work on Google Maps. If it can repeat the success of innovation within different ad models in its wide array of products, Google will be unstoppable. To many, it's already there. but, there is still room to grow.

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) continues its cruise into providing GPS-based location information to anyone with any device by partnering with GPS device maker TomTom. Google will make it easier to search for and then send business addresses from Google Maps to TomTom portable navigation devices.

Although services that send web-based driving directions to portable GPS devices already exist, this is the first time a Google Maps search can be sent directly to a TomTom navigation device with a click. Although anyone can enter an address into a GPS device and receive driving directions, it's much easier and faster to use a web service like Google Maps to locate the most updated information and then send that to a GPS in seconds.

As such, Google has added a "Send to GPS" link to the existing "Send" feature available when any customer uses Google Maps. For salespeople and other traveling professionals, being able to locate a business address within a few seconds and sending that information to your GPS device with a single click will be immensely valuable.

This new partnership will also make Google Maps more customer sticky than it already is. Google Maps competes with Yahoo! Maps, MSN Live Maps and AOL's MapQuest.

This 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.

In the now-famous Saturday Night Live digital short "Lazy Sunday," released in December 2005, Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg note that "Google Maps is the best - true that - double true!" Never has this affirmation been more ... well ... true.

At 6:00 a.m. Pacific Time today, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) introduced new features to its popular navigation service, allowing its users to personalize routes with text, pictures, and YouTube videos. The new service, called My Maps, includes more than 100 mini-applications, or "Maplets" that enable users to highlight cheap gas prices, provide weather reports, or seek real-estate information, which comes complete with local crime statistics.

Amateur photos from Yahoo's (NASDAQ: YHOO) Flickr service can be accessed through one feature. The new service also allows users to easily share maps and travel routes with friends, families (or stalkers).

CNNMoney quoted Google Maps product manager as noting that "We are putting the Web into maps."

To explore these new features, visit Google Maps and click on the new "My Maps" tab to get started.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

User-generated content (the YouTube phenomenon) has sent the entire internet industry scrambling for a piece of its ad-revenue potential. Now, any bozo with a video camera can produce his/her own masterpiece and find an audience of millions (just like Hollywood bozos do).

What if, however, your creativity runs to internet gadgets, mashups, and web pages? Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) doesn't believe your lack of html expertise should freeze you out of the market.

Following the lead of Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), Microsoft has launched a new tool, Popfly Creator, to take the coding work out of creating user-built web content. It has also launched a community, Popfly Space, to host the creations.

With Popfly Creator, you'll be able to piece together feeds to create your own custom web pages, or mash them up to create something new and wonderful (or dreadful). For example, suppose your life dream is to create a real-time display correlating the temperature in Mumbai, the S&P 500 average, and the color of the shirt you have on, in a 3-D graph? Popfly could make that dream come true, for better or worse.

Microsoft is not, as usual, first with concept. Yahoo launched Yahoo Pipes last year. Google has allowed mashups utilizing Google Earth and Google Maps.

MSFT is currently spooning out user privileges, perhaps hoping to clone the video site Joost's success in cultivated allure through the illusion of scarcity.

The new program is built using Microsoft's new Silverlight platform, but the average user won't need to know that. Microsoft is betting that, if they allow the world to unleash its creativity, some great content is bound to result -- the million monkeys approach. Then, by hosting such content on Popfly Space, the company will gain the eyeballs they need to grow their advertising revenue.

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are fighting hard to conquer the market for local search.

Actually, local search is not new. However, it is not particularly easy.

A big problem is that, according to Google's estimates, half of all small businesses don't even have a web site. In other words -- for a company that indexes the web -- this can be a big problem.

So, why not get a little creative and use the magic of user-generated content? That is, get local businesses to enter their own listings.

Well, Google is going to do this by leveraging its Google Maps. Of course, entering a listing is absolutely free (you can try it out at www.google.com/services).

Why do this?

What does Google's most recent upgrades to its Google Maps and Google Earth services mean? These services are among the most successful Google products outside of its bread-n-butter internet search business, according to the source story. Posit: What measure of success is in use here? Successful products used by customers are fantastic -- making money with those products is another side of the coin (literally).

Yes, Google Maps is extremely useful and impressive. In fact, I've used it more than Yahoo! Maps recently -- although Mapquest.com continues to be my default mapping and address search service. Google Earth is nothing short of stunning, and it's been on the market -- with a recent upgrade a few weeks ago -- for over a year now. Count Google in as knowing how to launch and upgrade excellently-performing services.

But I have to hold my applause for one thing: How are these being successful at bringing in revenue? Sure, they are great stories insofar as customer usage and acceptance. This is a very good thing. But from an investor's perspective, how are these contributing to Google's bottom line? Are ads working in Google Maps as well as in search? How does Google Earth benefit Google? Is Google planning to insert some kind of advertising into Google Earth to "monetize" the product? Or, is Google simply building a customer intelligence database from Google Earth to be used in more highly-targeted marketing in the future? These are questions GOOG investors should be asking -- ones I would be asking if I held shares.

While the streets of the United States are pretty well covered, Google Maps -- the mapping and street directional service offered by Google -- has expanded its footprint aggressively into Europe, with many new street-level mapping offerings available in many European countries.

Google appears to be cornering the market on a global mapping service, as they are far ahead of MSN's Virtual Earth and Yahoo! Maps as well. As more European countries have their countryside and streets added to Google's Map service, GOOG will be sticking those customers to its network reach and then some. The early bird gets the worm, as they say.

Another Google push into the competitive space with such successful properties as craigslist.org and traditional newspaper listings - this one regarding apartment availability listings integrated right into the Google Maps online service.

With Google Base and new offerings meant to keep customers on Google's network (sticky) as much as possible, the warring between Google, Yahoo! and MSN continues. Google (GOOG) rose to $407.99 at the end of the trading day yesterday - climbing over $3.50 from market open to close.