Google Maps measure of Credibility
Monday, September 17th, 2007I have read numerous documents about ‘SOA’, ‘WOA’ and ‘Mashups’, some offer some insight or some intelligent ideas most however are unadulterated drivel. Most, as is the way with emerging technology, are touting some product or other that is surely going to revolutionise the way we do everything or form part of some market analysts propaganda/echo chamber/poorly written explanation for lazy technical management.
I have noticed something interesting; virtually all the product pitches and analysis that use Google Maps as their example are hiding the crapness of whatever it is they are trying to sell. The cool thing about Google Maps is that they have given free access to anyone with a internet connection maps and satellite images of the entire Western World and some way beyond - that is amazing, hats of to the Google. However this would be cool no matter if it was exposed as a CSV file over a raw socket or Corba (that would just be slightly annoying). It is cool no matter what product you put between it and the web-browser.
If you can create something with Google Maps that isn’t cool or amazing then you are quite frankly an idiot. If you can create something that is cool and amazing that is because Google Maps is cool and amazing, not the technology be it webservices, mashups or the newest TLA. If you want to show how brilliant your product or <something> oriented architecture is pull something together from apparently innocuous services to provide something of (much) greater value than the parts.