Google Keynote at SMX Local & Mobile

Just confirmed yesterday: Michael Jones, Chief Technologist, Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Local Search will be giving the keynote at SMX Local & Mobile. IAC’s Peter Horan had originally been scheduled but he had to cancel due to a family obligation.

I’m very excited about Jones’ keynote given the dynamic nature of online (and mobile) mapping and how it has become a prevailing metaphor for local online. Google’s iPhone mapping application is one of the hottest and buzzworthy mobile apps out there. And online mapping and mashups have emerged as tools that co-exist with search as powerful ways of navigating (literally and figuratively) the Internet. (Here’s a piece I wrote in June of last year about Google Earth as a kind of “geobrowser.”) Accordingly, it’s hard to argue that dynamic mapping isn’t one of the most interesting and compelling areas on the Internet.

It will be great to hear Jones talk about the evolution of these products, they’re emergence as platforms and Google’s thinking about the future of online and mobile mapping.