Annotating the Planet.

GOOGLE Inc. GOOG

This article reports the benefits of the open, extendible markup language (XML)-based design of the Google Maps Service from Google as of March 7, 2005. In the very near future, billions of people will be roaming the planet with Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. Clouds of network connectivity are forming over our major cities and will inevitably coalesce. The geoaware Web isn't a product we buy; it is an environment we colonize. There will always be markets for proprietary data. But the real action will be in empowering people to create their own services, with their own data, for their friends, family, and business associates. Google Maps is not just a service, it is a service factory. Radical openness is the key. It has been only two weeks since it launched and already the colonization has begun. Thanks to open XML data formats and open Web programming interfaces, people have figured out how to animate routes, create custom routes with their own GPS data, and display GPS data in real time. Microsoft could have enabled these same kinds of things years ago. Its TerraServer has been up and running since 1998. But despite Steve Ballmer's infamous monkey-dance chant, developers have not flocked to TerraServer. What is Google's secret?