Posts tagged as: googlemap

Will the next war be mashed?

Posted on Friday, January 13, 2006 at 9:08 AM (permalink)

In my lifetime I've seen the first war reported on the evening news (Vietnam), the first war televised in realtime (Bombing of Baghdad, Iraq I), and the first war blogged (Iraq II). Let's hope we never see the first war to be mashed. (Via Programmableweb)

Tags: googlemap mashup

Everyone has their own Googlebase

Posted on Wednesday, November 16, 2005 at 8:30 AM (permalink)

The initial reaction in the blogosphere is very different from mine. Most people are reacting to the mere fact that Google has a "database," and filtering it through their personal view of Google, Ebay, Microsoft, etc. Few are actually looking at how it works, and the ones who do often say that they are intimidated. Dude! have you ever SEEN a database?

One problem, which Bosworth may have realized more than I, is that today's end-users may actually be less application savvy than even the average user in 1985. Many of them, especially bloggers, even A-list bloggers, use the computer purely as a communication and publishing device. They are extremely adept at IM, blogging, email, IRC, and even the new areas like tags, but they probably have no reason to use Excel, and I wonder how many users under the age of 25 have ever seen Access or any other database of similar complexity.

I'm not proclaiming the dumbing down of the average computer user, just the shifting of their experience to text oriented, social interactions. So are they ready for the type of database I want? Will they ever be? Surely if we have to start with tags and work our way back up to even flat files, which are still way beyond the capability of Googlebase, this is going to be a long education process. But there are still going to be application developers. Will they be solely professionals? Will we not see a new wave of user-developers emerge on the web as we saw during the PC revolution?

I still think Googlebase has to become much more, and that they realize it. For example, to drive the Google maps API, which is red-hot right now, you need a list of locations. Surely they understand that that list should be stored in Googlebase. So they must be planning to deliver the ability to store and manage lists. Which means they must deliver the capability of a flat file database at a minimum.

Tags: api blogosphere database google googlebase googlemap

I was right, Google maps are easy

Posted on Tuesday, November 15, 2005 at 6:48 AM (permalink)

I got a chance to read over the Google Maps API documentation last night, and it looks like my guess that it would be easy is correct. I can see why so many map mashups have appeared. I should have my first one working within a few hours of starting to code, which will hopefully be tonight after I get back from the SSA.

Tags: api google googlemap mashup

Google maps API comes next

Posted on Monday, November 14, 2005 at 11:43 AM (permalink)

Based on the speed at which Google Maps mashups are appearing I get the feeling it must be pretty easy to do. I'm supposed to be at this conference later today and tomorrow, but Im going to see if I can fit in a quick check of the Maps API late tonight.

Tags: api google googlemap mashup

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