Summary
In this article, we have shown that Google Maps, as a key component of Google’s mission to organize all of the world’s information, is a major contributor to the explosive growth of mobile/social/local Internet in two essential ways. First of all, Google Maps for Mobile and its layers of value-added services continue to push the envelope of technologies and provide mobile users with the best social and local experiences in the new paradigm of mobile/social/local Internet.
More importantly, Google Maps plays an indispensable role through the Google Maps API family by providing the base map tiles, places data, services, and backend data infrastructure to many of the innovative applications such as foursquare, Gowalla, brightkite, loopt, Yelp, where, and Booyah/MyTown. I’m very excited about this space and looking forward to more innovations coming from both Google Maps and all other apps.