Google and the Deadly Power of Data

I think the maps are only part of the deal here, and google is failing on the most important aspect: actually planning a useful route. Have not used the new app. but the current version of Google maps on my BB has a routing algorithm which simply sucks eggs...<p>I can't tell you how many times I've tried to use the directions Google provided on my BB, only to revert to my TomTom. The latter generally provides better directions and has blazingly fast recalcs when I veer off the designated route.<p>(More recently I've discovered Goviko, free-ish, which works better than my TomTom because it will take live delays ahead into account when planning my trip, but sucks the life out of my BB faster than a ... well you know.)

<i>This is just a timely example of Google's monstrous growth, and the destruction it causes</i><p>Ugh, how overly dramatized. Cars killed the horsewhip industry, too.

<a href="http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansascity/mobile/stories/2009/10/26/daily38.html" rel="nofollow">http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansascity/mobile/stories/...</a><p><i>Garmin competitor TomTom NV, a Dutch company, on Wednesday reported a 15 percent drop in revenue and a 48 percent plunge in earnings for the third quarter compared to the same quarter of 2008. However, earnings rose 42 percent compared to the second quarter. </i><p>Let's not ignore the possibility that todays drop in Tomtom's stock price (and by extension, Garmin's) might had something to do with an earnings drop.

The real key here is Google's efficiency and innovation. They're not simply providing free data for the masses to consume, making nothing off of it and paying to obtain it (as they must, to map the highways and byways of the US).<p>At it's heart, Google is an advertising company which creates products that use data to place other companies in the eyes of those who use them.<p>TomTom and Garmin may offer an equivalent (or better) experience for a price, but Google offers an excellent experience for free, the only cost being a little inadvertent exposure to advertisements.<p>It wouldn't be inconceivable for another company to more efficiently display data and create a better experience for consumers, but profit through advertisements as Google does. Companies do this already. There simply wasn't another model in the mapping industry that could compete. Yet.

I would argue that the fact that Google causes such drastic, irreversible shifts in business practices is a good thing. Simply put, Google isn't raising the bar - it's setting a higher baseline for consumer-level performance. Forcing better service and performance across the information industry can only be advantageous in the long run.

Garmin and TomTom are hallowed brands?<p>This article was written ten years ago, about Microsoft. At that time, the hallowed brands were the likes of Borland and Corel. Sure, Google is dominant in search and advertising, but things have a way of changing in this industry. It seems that the when a company comes to dominate a category, the category begins to lose relevance.<p>Microsoft's dominance of desktop computing comes to mind. They controlled the platform. Then, the applications and development tools. Eventually, no one entered the desktop application market without dealing directly with Redmond.<p>Google's not going anywhere soon, but rest assured - the next Google is being developed (or thought about) right now.

WOW.<p>Google is fundamentally changing the business model of many companies. This is a great example. To Google this is all data, and their goal is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."<p>So these companies should ask themselves: what are they offering? A service, or data?<p>That said, the stock market has overreacted. Nothing Google has done has affected the earnings of any of these companies. Yet. You all have a decent chance of pocketing a 20% gain if you buy now, because that fear got priced into the stock today.

A little surprised that the stock market should fall down so much. After all, how many phones actually run on Android. If this was an iPhone app, that would have meant a lot more "danger" for the GPS manufacturers.

Insightful article.

Spiders kill pesky insects.<p>EDIT: Google is a new predator and the other insects have to adapt or be eaten alive. In the end we get a better more resilient breed of insects. No more lazy insects.<p>EDIT: It's good 'cause it forces companies to be more useful and less annoying (if they were annoying).