I am not sure of the actual use it gets in terms of driving business just yet, I think that it might be a little ahead of itself. I can see the potential but I still think that google is not the 1st place most people will look when they are in search of something “local”

I am glad that you are enjoying the series. I am sorry that I have not been able offer a European perspective on 2009.

On one issue, the telemaps being dropped by Google issue; I was recently speaking w/ an acquaintance who had large responsibility for developing print street maps for decades. He worked at one of the largest venders w/in the US. He had many teams responsible for providing the maps and quality controls.

We have spoken on the issue quite a number of times. His perspective is interesting. For several years he has spoken to the disparity between quality controls between the production of print maps and web maps…from all the providers. He maintains that none of the maps providers have ever provided the manpower that was requisite to ensure significant accuracy. He has stayed in touch w/ his ex employees who performed the same tasks for web maps makers that they did for the print providers. His claim is that the web providers don’t provide sufficient resources to ensure quality.

Could be true. Certainly the history of web maps products is replete with errors.

Now his perspective is that with the switch from teleatlas to inhouse google resources…there are no resources to ensure quality. Google is depending on the commentary from the user base to make changes…and is “hoping/praying” that changes will be accurate.

Its an interesting point of view. Is this an example where our dependency on internet resources will ultimately produce a far inferior product? I don’t know, but it is fascinating to get commentary from someone on the inside.