I have seen the future, and it consists of a map, location-specific data, and a device to access it with when you’re out and can actually use it most.
Google integrated Wikipedia data and photos from 2007 acquisition Panaramio (and apparently real estate data too) into its Google Maps results over a month ago and if the screenshot above doesn’t get you excited, you’re clearly just not up to geek snuff.
This execution may lack the wow factor of Microsoft’s Photosynth, but it provides a worthy glimpse into the future of user-generated content.
We’ve all watched as people got excited over blog posts, and the revolutionary step forward that was tagging and “folksonomy”. What about when we break past ‘what’ and ‘when’ and actually add ‘where’ to the equation?
More on this as I have time to digest this, the new iPhone 3G and its GPS features, the potential returns on the Nokia acquisition of Navteq, and the forthcoming Android deployment from Google and its partners. But needless to say, keep an eye on this space — after years of incremental advancements (many of which, like Google Maps itself, got people extremely excited on only promise and possibility), we’re on the verge of lots of big breakthroughs.
