> <i>It’s hard to remember what digital maps were like before Google Maps went live in 2005</i><p>Everybody used MapQuest. What's so hard to remember about that??<p>> <i>and the huge technological breakthroughs that transformed clicking on arrows and waiting, to simply dragging a map with a mouse and watching it render smoothly and quickly.</i><p>I mean, it was nice, but was this really a "huge technological breakthrough"? It's not like Google Maps invented AJAX. It was a fairly straightforward improvement.<p>Sorry, but this author exaggerates a wee bit much.
Offtopic: I really don't get the point of the blogspot.com domain now redirecting to blogspot.com.TLD for every Blogger blog.<p>I actually find it a little bit annoying.
One can't help but wonder at the timing of all of this.<p>Given that Apple has owned Poly9, Placebase and C3 for nearly 3 years and released nothing makes you wonder what they've been up to. I guess it's enough to rattle Google. I think they would be hoping that Apple confines it to iOS and doesn't "do a WebKit" and game change the market.