CNNMoney's Jim Ledbetter and Fortune's David Kirkpatrick discuss the new ad technology deployed on Yahoo! and whether it will dethrone Google. Visitors to http://maps.
google.com after Wednesday at 6 a.m.
PDT will find a new tab that contains links to dozens of the mini-applications, which Google calls Maplets. One map application allows users to watch YouTube videos based on the locations where they are uploaded. One could switch from the video confessions of a teenager in Ohio to tourist videos shot in the Andes mountains of South America.
Among the applications created by software developers over the past month are programs that allow users to link famous photos taken in locations around the world to Google Maps. Alternately, photos that have location information on the Flickr photo sharing service can be found on a Flickr Maps application. Users can map local real estate prices, plot hotels or locate the cheapest gas station nearby.
We are putting the Web into maps, John Hanke, a product manager for Google Maps, said of the diversity of information users now will be able to locate geographically. Web measurement war heats up Furthermore, users can overlay multiple applications on top of Google Maps to find interesting geographical correlations. Before buying a house, a potential property owner could overlay local crime statistics on their new neighborhood.
Tourists could check out photos posted by other tourists to sites such as Yahoo Inc.'s (Charts, Fortune 500) Flickr to figure out what the hotel or the surrounding region looks like before they book a reservation. Consumers who have signed up for a Google Gmail account can save personalized maps.
Users who choose not to sign into Google services can remain anonymous but use the service, Hanke said. What has been the most infectious idea lately? CNNMoney's Jim Ledbetter and Fortune's David Kirkpatrick discuss the new ad technology deployed on Yahoo!
and whether it will dethrone Google.
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