Juan Carlos Perez brings up a good point today in PC World about the Google Maps developers’ community. Citing Ray Valdes - a Gartner analyst - the journalist explains how Google fails to create incentives around its Google Maps’ API:

“When you meet a developer in a social setting some will say ‘I’m an iPhone developer’ or ‘I’m a Facebook developer’ or ‘I’m a Microsoft .Net developer.’ It’s rare to hear a developer say ‘I’m a Google developer’ or ‘I’m an OpenSocial developer.’ Google needs to get to that level of engagement with developers,” Valdes added.

The cause identified by analysts is Google’s shaky platform coherence: Google products are hardly connected to one another, a real puzzle for developers who wish to integrate different products into one. Analysts see the Android mobile platform as Google products’ convergence point. Google Maps is Google’s gateway to the mobile phone - on Android and beyond - yet its developers’ community is held in muddy waters.

Google Maps already makes money through the mobile deals it inked worldwide. On the Web, businesses utilizing Google Maps at the core of their product have to be self-reliable to survive. Instead of nurturing its developers’ community, Google operates occasional purges, which brings the level of stress even higher.

One thing Google Maps could do is create a reward system. This would attract more entrepreneur-spirited minds into evangelizing the Google Maps’ technology:

“The number one thing that would help us as developers is more evangelism [...]; there are great opportunities out there, just not enough people popularizing them,” (PC World)

Google Maps could also share its mobile revenues with the developers who stimulate mobile usage with their applications. This strategy could only be beneficial to Google’s convergence towards mobile phones.

A few days ago, I met the CEO and Co-Founder of Glympse - Bryan Trussel - for an interview, and I saved a bit of our chat for the Click2Map blog. I like this part because it talks about how the Web 1.0 was a physical space getaway, but it slowly turned inside out over time to become the best indicator of our physical existence.

This new trend makes me wonder if our next social profiles online will be maps, and the next big social network will be the place where users can feed their location in (through Latitude for example) and customize the looks of their maps. A map of my whereabouts is the best way to define who I am (hint hint Antony

No, GeoAggregateMe doesn’t actually exist, and if it did, it would have a different, sexier name. But for ambitious developpers out there, aggregating people’s whereabouts and thoughts might just be the next big thing.

The real deception with the 2.0-transformed Web is the timid space it created for advertisers in our interpersonal conversations. No cash, no growth, no accomplishment. However, smartphones are bringing the beat back by tracking down users’ locations, which opens up the doors of live geo-targeting for local businesses. Whatever I do, my location is enough info for some advertiser to show me its ad.

Who are those Web services that know who you are and where you are going? There are a few:

- First there is Google. As I wrote last week, Google’s got a Local Business Center, Android, Gears, Latitude, Google Maps, and so on. They are tracking us down like it’s nobody’s business.
- Thanks to its mobile integration, Twitter gets a lot of location juice that will undoubtedly attract advertisers.
- Facebook knows a bunch about users’ location but they face a different privacy issue that Twitter does.
- The geosocial tool Loopt gets pings from users several times a day.
- There is also Yelp. On Yelp, you say where you’ve been, and give your appreciation of that place. Goldmine for geo-targeting purposes!

The same way we have bits of discussions all over the Web and have a hard time putting the pieces back together, our location is shattered over different services. It would be nice if 1. those services opened up their users’ location data, and 2. a Friendfeed for geodata opened its doors.

GeoAggregateMe would generate a shameless amount of geodata on its users: Such a service could be fun and profitable.

Yesterday, the Google geo development team released the Latitude GeoRSS feed into the wild through an API. I find it surprising that Google is opening up its users’ geo-data this fast. Here’s why:

In this very young geo-location space, Google is taking a major lead with Android. It turns them into one of the rare Web-based service that tracks directly users’ location. Android’s numbers aren’t tearing the roof off, but they are not bad either: In March, AdMob reported that Android phones experienced a 44% monthly growth are in the first months after launch, while the iPhone got a 88% monthly growth rate (however, I would like to compare the marketing spend of both companies for the launch, Apple obviously had more buzz).

The reason this is an advantage for Google is mobile advertising. The Web on mobile will probably become the most profitable advertising channel for brands and local advertisers alike. A plethora of ad networks are popping up in this space. However, while focusing on serving ads, those ad networks will have to buy the geo-data juice from data providers… Like Google: Latitude encourages mobile users’ to share their location voluntarily and regularly. Payday!

So why is Google releasing its geo-juice so fast?

We have tried to make this process as easy as possible, but we realize there is an entirely different set of people (you guys, the developers!) that want to do more interesting things with their location.

In other words, they are creating a developers’ ecosystem around their geo-data center, which creates many benefits:
- Start developing geo-advertising solutions on Google’s platform
- Develop good ideas for Adwords to integrate later
- Maybe develop an economy around Latitude (and Android?)
- Pioneer to become a leading geo data provider.

However, Google’s Achille’s heel in this story is its social networking potential: It’s close to being null. On Google, you search, you create documents, you watch videos, but Google doesn’t connect you with your close ones the way Facebook does. Their social graph algo is known to be a bit screwy. So they will need the help of somebody else to capture our location while we socialize on the go.

I have enabled the ’share your location publicly’. I don’t find it scary. I have the feeling that nobody really cares where I am anyway (except advertisers). And it’s not that accurate anyway. But I really like updating my gtalk with my location. Geekilicious!

A few days ago, Zack Stern from PC World shared a few tips to enhance your googling. Amongst those tips is the ‘let Google Maps Find You’ tweak. Basically, instead of zooming in your location, or typing in your default location, with this tweak, you just click a link and the location-tracking technology takes 5 seconds to spot you nice and clear.

For those too lazy to follow the link, you need to download Greasemonkey, Mozilla Geode and Google Maps & Geode - Together At Last.

Once those scripts and add-ons are running in your browser, just go to Google Maps‘, and click on the ‘Current position’ next to the search button.

I really liked this trick, and felt like sharing it through Youtube, hence the video. Enjoy the creepy music

Things are going fast, very fast in the geolocation world. Yesterday, Google added two features which are rather small, but the ramifications of this move are potentially much large.

The first change is for users of the Google toolbar. From now on, when they will open a map, it will auto-center on their location. As MG Siegler points out on Techcrunch:

1. Its recently launched Latitude location-based network is only useful if it can automatically update your location, or make it really easy to do.
And 2. there are other big things Google could do with location information — such as serve you location-based ads.

Location-aware enabled devices are starting to dominate the market, and Google is positioned front-row to capitalize on this opportunity.

Another small addition in the seed-stage world of Google’s social maps is the save and share driving directions feature. MyMaps map creators (any user with a Google account) can now easily draw a line along a road, add a note, and share a map.

We have here two very small additions, but which open up wide possibilities when it comes to make mapping easier to use. Smart enough to know my location, and providing tools which make it easier to plan my next location.

Google Maps are getting stickier by the minute!

First, install MyTracks, the GPS track recorder from the Google team. If you jog for example, use this app to record your track every time, and compare your performance through the Google Spreadsheets the app generates for you. Your phone just turned into a physical performance booster there

Once you got MyTracks up-and-running, install Twidroid, the twitter app for Android. If you are like me and you do not like the noise of Twitter apps, go in the settings and turn off the notifications from your friends.

Now that you have those two apps running on your phone, next time you do your jogging around the park, here is what you will do:
Record your track - Hit ’share maps with friends’ in MyTracks - Select Twidroid.

Once Google generated a map for your track, Twidroid sends it right away to your Twitter stream, notifying your followers of your performance of the day. You could be more precise in your tweet, by adding “san francisco, dolores park, jogging’ in your tweet for example, so that other tweeps jogging in the same area can find you.

I find this app combo to be super easy to use, and also a real life-changer if you have been looking to hook up with other people on Twitter around outdoors activities.

To push this combo a bit further, let’s say that you want to share this map with a friend that has a Facebook profile, but no Twitter account. No biggie. Just install the Selective Twitter Status app on Facebook. Next time you recorded a track you want to show to your Facebook friend, just send him a shout out the way I described above, and add #fb at the end of your tweet.

I have tested it and it works wonderfully well.

So you thought that finding a purse through Latitude was the most offbeat news this week in the geo-consumer space? Well, I have a better story for you.

You have probably heard of those two Domino’s Pizza employees who created a video where our biggest phobia about fast-food employees are re-enacted. It’s been all over the news for the past two days. Well the way those two got caught is extremely far-fetched.

First, as it was saying on the Youtube page of the video before it was taken down:

This is a great lesson on why you never post something like this on the Internet. These Domino’s workers posted this on youtube earlier today (April 13, 2009) It was removed later this day but re-uploaded because these people deserve to be fired. If you want these people fired then Favorite, comment, and rate 5 stars so the word gets out and these people fired.

So the employees posted the video online for just a few hours, before taking it down, but alas the deed was done. It was re-posted right away by somebody else, and the virality of the social Web did the rest. But that’s not it. From the video, it is pretty hard to know in which of the 6,000 stores worldwide this hoax happened. That’s where it gets good! As the ABC reports:

Readers of the consumer affairs blog consumerist.com, which posted the video early in the week, tracked Hammonds down through her YouTube account and identified the store from matching an exterior shot in a video with an image on Google maps.

I told you that was far-fetched. They matched an exterior shot of one of the employees’ video with an image on Google Maps, which made it possible to track the location of the store where the joke-gone-wrong happened. I am personally baffled. I don’t know which image search engine they used for this, but hats off! That is some military-level image search that only a pizza corporation can afford to save the reputation of its brand

So what now? Are Google mapping technologies the next crime fighter? Your neighborhood’s eye and ear? It spots your stolen purse. It detects a fart on your pizza. What’s next?

http://maps.google.com/maps?cbp=12,175.75237417767164,,0,9.058441558441539&cbll=40.450223,-80.009032&layer=c&ie=UTF8&t=h&panoid=VsY0kJkFUu2y4jf9U0TL2w&ll=40.450131,-80.008997&spn=0,359.983478&z=17

A goocar looks like this:

For other goocar extravaganzas, check out this article: Top 10 Google Street View Cars (GooCars) Extravaganzas

Today, Click2Map is releasing a new feature that enables our users to more deeply customize the look and feel of the maps you create. Every elements of the map is now customizable: header, footer, fonts, sidebar, colors, driving directions and address finder.. You name it, we customize it! (scroll down to the end of this post to find the complete list of customizable objects)

We are really excited about this new feature as our existing users know that before today, you could customize some aspects of your map, but the modifications were not happening live. You had to hit save and see if the modifications were ok. Now if you want to remove the address finder from the sidebar for example, it happens right away. Feel free to try different color combination, experiment sidebar looks, reflect on your visitors’ experience once they will land on your map… You can make decisions on the fly, making your map creation process richer and faster.

We also added a pretty neat feature for Silver accounts and up: the URL and email in the footer. Like we mention in the introduction, someone could land on your map, but nothing would actually indicate that you made it. No attribution on the Web is like anonymity, it doesn’t benefit your business. With Click2Map’s new feature, your Google maps are becoming a real traffic and lead generation tool! That’s quite some news, isn’t it?

For our existing users, simply log in your account, hit publish, and start playing around with the new map customization tool. For new users of Click2Map, go on Click2Map’s sign up page, compare our offers and pick the one that suits you best, and start customizing your maps too!

Not convinced yet about how good-looking your maps can be? Watch this video where Click2Map takes its top off and shows you the whole shabang:

Here is the complete list of today’s new addition:

Publish map as a Web page:

• Preview in real-time
• Show/hide map title
• Show/hide map description
• Show/hide the sidebar
• Show/hide the sidebar after clicking an item in the list
• Hide the sidebar upon startup
• Modify the text in the footer
• Link a Website to the map
• Link an email address to the map
• Turn on/off the address finder
• Turn on/off the live traffic view feature (only available in some countries)
• Customize each element’s style:
  • title: font, size, color
  • description: font, size, color
  • footer text: font, size color
  • sidebar text: font, size, color
  • markers’ title: color, underline
  • active tab’s background color
  • active tab’s title color
  • inactive tab’s background color
  • inactive tab’s background color
  • borders’ color
  • page’s background color

Publish maps as a widget:

• Real-time preview of the widget
• Show/hide sidebar
• Show/hide sidebar after clicking on an item in the list
• Show/hide sidebar upon startup
• Turn on/off the address finder
• Turn on/off the live traffic view feature (only available in some countries)
• Customize each element’s style:
  • title: font, size, color
  • description: font, size, color
  • footer text: font, size color
  • sidebar text: font, size, color
  • markers’ title: color, underline
  • active tab’s background color
  • active tab’s title color
  • inactive tab’s background color
  • inactive tab’s background color
  • borders’ color
  • page’s background color

Other upgrades

• Updated HTML editor for rich text areas (markers’ description for example)
• Updated KML file uploader, now accepting drawings (polygons, lines) during import.

Happy Mapping with Click2Map!