1. Maps are the height of the data pyramid. Once they’re populated, everything else (i.e. local search) gets easier.
2. 3D Cityscapes are a big part of the future, and will drive new types of ecommerce. This is the expensive battlefield that Microsoft and Google are playing on. The end game isn’t to be the destination site, but the platform for thousands of developers.
3. It doesn’t happen overnight. The Cityscapes are likely to be siloed products, with relatively small market share to start. Smaller, pocket-sized versions of them will appear on other parts of the Web. Indeed, bigger isn’t generally better. On many sites, maps should get smaller before they get bigger. It is the other content that will drive repeat usage.
4. 3D Maps are eye-grabbers that will steal attention from everything else. There’s no going back to simple maps. Expect Yahoo, Ask, MapQuest and others to get into the 3D game too, despite a current focus on social integration of their simpler maps with strong tools.
5. Anybody who focuses on maps needs to also focus on the other parts of The Mashup. Look for more of an emphasis on integrated data, local search, User Generated Content and video in coming months (i.e. enhanced Yellow Pages, articles, reviews and promotional clips).
6. Virtual gaming, simulated worlds (I.e. Second Life) and maps also need to be talked about in the same breath, since they draw on the same data sets. Expect to see simulated “trips,” “shopping excursions” and other apps in the next generation. The Knight Foundation’s funding of several simulated environments (i.e. Paul Grabowicz’s re-simulation of the 1950s Oakland Jazz scene) is likely to prove prescient as a harbinger of the new news. Ditto for Microsoft’s funding for XBox.
7. The next generation of ecommerce mapping is squarely focused on store layouts and other inside apps. People buy more when they know where they’re going. They’ll back up the store locater/storefront images being developed by Google, InfoUSA, TeleAtlas etc. New camera mounted vehicles and immersive technology will drive this environment, which is going to be 100 percent improved from what we saw with A9’s street view just a couple of years ago.
8. Maps for mobile devices are as important to this environment as anything else (as amply demonstrated by Google Map Chief Mike Jones, demoing a mapping app on Apple’s iPhone to the “oohs” and “ahhs” of the audience. (Sure, I want one, too).
9. As Google and other sites start to place maps and images at the top of the page, they need to make sure they don’t devalue paid advertisers that are used to “owning” the position. Look for new types of contextual placement.
10. O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference has been “Mapping Central” for four years now. This year, it got 800 people. It is a great, unique event. But expect its focus to get increasingly broader as it tries to stay ahead of industry trends. For sure, the developers that have been its mainstay audience are sad to see it becoming more “corporate.” Even “the suits” say it isn’t as much fun (although time well spent).
Great post for those of us who could not attend the conference. I’m wondering how the economics will pan out. So if I own a store front in the real world, what kinds of entry point will I get to my web site in the virtual world. Also, the mapping provider that develops the easiest APIs and gives financial incentives to the development community will have the advantage in this technology race.
Peter’s review of Where 2.O was spot-on.
There are a couple of points that I would like to add for those of you who were unable to attend the conference.
Overall, I think the unintended but obvious theme of the Where 2.0 conference was that “Location cues are the key to unlocking the human spatial experience.”
Peter reflects this notion in his Takeaway #1. I am not sure maps are at the top of the data pyramid. Instead, it might be useful to think of maps as the representation of the data pyramid. As the base of the pyramid becomes broader and more detailed (more specific coordinate detail on world geography) more attributes can be added to the framework, making the entire dataset more useful for solving a variety of spatial problems.
It is clearly the case that maps and MLOs (Map-Like-Objects) are ascendant in the online worlds of mapping, digital earth representation and local search.
Peter’s comment # 5 resonated with me. It is clear that the big search engine companies are providing free tools and data to developers to push them to extend to boundaries of the known dataverse. It is likely the use of these tools by “local” teams will uncover new levels of specific detail about people, places, history, travel, economics, demography…you name it. But whatever it is, it will be crawled by the search engines, become part of their index and seen on their SERPs.
What is less clear is the influence these mapping and spatial display tools might have on the nature and structure of social search. Some companies are snapping up social networking companies in hopes that local search will meet social search and, as a result, the owner of the network will be advantaged by groups acting as “trusted authorities”. Other companies seem to feel less need to “own” the social search network, but want to supply the tools that will be used to pursue local knowledge and in the process create a “knowledge community”. While I do not think the tools were designed to be a “back door”, they may have the same advantage without the cloak and dagger. How these two trends play out will have a profound influence on local search.
Next, Peter hit the nail on the head in #10. Where2.0 has mutated into a kinder, gentler places. Unfortunately, it’s just not as exciting as it used to be.
Finally, something map-geeky. While listening to the speakers at Where 2.0 I found myself fidgeting and groaning. More tools, more capability, more mappers and a more examples of cartographic illiteracy. Examples include point data shown with area symbols, area data shown as point symbols and volumtric data shown by both point and areal symbols.
However, in the face of this pain, I have just one small request. For a start, remember that when using choropleth symbols (color or pattern to show classed data values by enumeration districts), the classes that you use to represent the data SHOULD be mutually exclusive. In other words, when you have a legend value for one class that includes the data valued from 1 to 10, the next larger class should start with a numeric value that is not included in any other class (so, you should not have 1- 10, followed by 10 – 20). Doing so makes the map much less useful to the viewer. Think about it.
I had the opportunity to attend Where 2.0. This was a great event (even for marketing types like myself) and there was a huge amount of energy around the show overall.
Nice write up!
Good ideas in here.
Any links available to Where 2.0 Video Content??? Great article – Thanks.
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[...] The Local Onliner » 10 Takeaways on Mapping from Where 2.0 “. Anybody who focuses on maps needs to also focus on the other parts of The Mashup. Look for more of an emphasis on integrated data, local search, User Generated Content and video in coming months” (tags: internet mapping geolocation local search business directories) [...]