The conference Where 2.0 begins tomorrow in San Jose, California. It’s about mapping, mashups and location-based services and there should be a range of interesting announcements from companies large and small. To that end, Garrett Rogers speculates, based on domain name registrations, that Google will be announcing a “street view” mapping capability at the show. Here’s more background on a related startup (Vutool), which Google allegedly acquired to offer this functionality (or some version of it).
Microsoft has experimented with street-level photography and has had “Street Side” (in Seattle and San Francisco) for over a year. And of course, Amazon’s A9 used to have street-level photography in its innovative “block view” offering, which the company shut down last year.
I recently spoke informally with Barnaby Dorfman (at the recent Facebook Platform launch), who managed A9’s local search before he left the company, and we lamented the demise of block view. A9’s former CEO Udi Manber is now at Google (and has been since early 2006). He’s VP of Engineering and doesn’t have direct responsibility for anything in Maps or local. However, all the elements in place suggests that Google will ultimately offer street-level views on Maps. Most recently it has made images more prominent in Maps (for Universal Search).
Read the rest of this post is at SEL.
May 28, 2007 at 5:21 pm
[...] morning I came across a discussion, in relation to Where 2.0, a mapping conference. To that end, Garrett Rogers speculates, based on [...]