Google Raises the Profile of Geospatial Information:

location based services

"Google has been very active lately with the release of many new geospatial tools on their popular Internet search site. The new products have been matched with similar offerings by competitors Yahoo and Microsoft MSN. Geospatial capabilities are at the core of this search engine war, which has succeeded in raising the profile of the entire geospatial technology industry. GeoWorld editor Matt Ball recently spoke with John Hanke, general manager Keyhole, Google Inc., and in charge of the Google Earth product line, about the many new products, the public’s reaction to these offerings and the impact that these products have on GIS vendors and other players in the geospatial technology industry.

GeoWorld: Google has launched an impressive number of geospatial applications since the purchase of Keyhole. I developed the following timeline to keep track of all of the developments.

Timeline
Google Local – March 2004 beta site released
Keyhole Acquisition – October 28, 2004
Google Maps – February 2005
Google Maps Imagery Layer – April 2005
Mobile Google Local – April 13, 2005
Google Earth – June 27, 2005

Did the Keyhole development team play a role in most of these applications?

Hanke: The Google Maps effort was underway"