Some days it seems like the World and Google Maps are going to hell in a hand basket with intractable problems; Global warming, end of oil, the war in Iraq, mapspam etc… but I am one of those folks that is a pessimist of mind and an optimist of heart about world affairs. I see the problems, note them (perhaps too often for friends and family alike) but firmly believe that humanity can solve them. At least I have hope that we can.<\/p>\n
The same goes for Google. I may seem like a classic kvetcher<\/a> when it comes to Google. Complain, complain, complain you say, never anything good to say… However the complaints that I have noted about Google Maps just reflect my desire for them to succeed. I really want local to work and I (in my heart of hearts) am rooting for Google to be one of the companies* that sucessfully pushes local into our lives.<\/p>\n In fact, it was but a little more than a year ago that Bill Slawski and I did a little “Jane, you ignorant slut”** two step where I took the side that (Google) Local would improve in accuracy over time<\/a> while Bill contended that the task was too daunting and that data accuracy would not significantly improve<\/a>.<\/p>\n I really do want Google Maps to succeed so I am making a New Years Budget Resolution for Google: Hire MapsGuide Jen some help!<\/strong> Heck what does a good customer service rep cost in San Jose? $60,000 a year? That’s but 100 shares of Google stock. Alternatively they could ground the plane for a week. It would go a long way towards showing that Google does intend “goodwill toward small business people and peace on (Google) Earth & Maps” for 2008. Some days it seems like the World and Google Maps are going to hell in a hand basket with intractable problems; Global warming, end of oil, the war in Iraq, mapspam etc… but I am one of those folks that is a pessimist of mind and an optimist of heart about world affairs. I see …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-maps-google-local"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n*The other is iBegin<\/a> – I like their style and business model.
\n** a 70’s reference to a skit on SNL <\/a> where Dan Akroyd would take the role of the right wing attack dog against the politically correct liberal Jane Curitn on a Point-CounterPoint send up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"