Miguel Helft wrote an interesting article in the New York Times today, aptly describing the "battle lines" being drawn for local search.
Today Google's patient strategy to dominate local search is beginning to unfold. As described in the article a bright yellow tag and information box appears on Google maps providing a sponsored link to a website. But will developers, using Google Maps web APIs and SDks on iPhone / Android be unwittingly drawn into the battle?
Google has been a benevolent supplier of mapping services, free of charge, to developers for a number of years. The democratization of maps, or mash-ups, has been very popular. To determine how successful Google maps were, in comparison to other mapping providers, I did a quick review of topics in developer forums and saw that activity on Google Maps was two orders of magnitude (100 X) greater than all their rivals put together.
Part of the attraction of Google Maps APIs is the speed with which you are up and running. Simply tick agreement to the terms and conditions and all the power of Google Maps and mapping services are at your fingertips. Furthermore provided the maps are publicly facing and free, there are no licensing fees. Mapping license fees to competitors during this period have been very expensive by comparison, although that is changing.
Google's terms of use clause 17.3 states:
"In consideration for Google granting you access to and use of the Services, you agree that Google may place such advertising on the Services."
In other words Google is able to present ads alongside developer's content. I expect these bright yellow tags are going so show up all over the place. I don't think developers can expect to get a cut of the ad revenue for the traffic they provide Google either.
So the battle ground for this $13 billion market local search market is LBS maps. It is probably time for the developer community to request more information on what Google plans for their maps (ambiguity intended), and how is the pie to be cut up?
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