So hearing that Google Maps is now 15, you have one of two thoughts. “Boy that’s a long time” or “Boy, that’s a long time”. It really is a long time, this blog isn’t 15 years old yet (but we’re getting close). I thought it would be fun to look back at my first mention of Google Maps:
… ESRI does include metadata with their ArcWeb Services datasets. Take a look at the U.S Street Map Service metadata page. This information is available for every ArcMap service. But it isn’t just ESRI. Geodata.gov has extensive metadata as well as other providers of data (when you get satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe, they give it to you).
About Google Maps hackers just don’t get it – “It’s all moot”
So of course my first mention of Google Maps had everything that made 2005 amazing.
- Mention of Esri – yea I used to be “the Esri blogger”
- Mention of ArcWeb – boy I think I was the only one who tried to use that madness
- Metadata – what argument in 2005 didn’t have some amazing metadata reference
The funny thing about this is nobody cares about metadata in Google Maps anymore. It was a fake issue back then, but in the end anyone who needs detailed metadata about imagery, uses a service that has that information in it. The rest of us, just use Google Maps.
Comments
2 responses to “Google Maps at 15 Years”
I had the ArcWeb Poster up in my office at CH. I kept trying to get everyone to go to “Web Services”
When rubber meets the road, you will use whatever data you have available at hand (metadata or no metadata). Metadata management should be reserved for the stewards of the the data and service providers. And it is the service provider’s prerogative to utilize appropriate data based on the “application/use” of the analysis. It is too much of a burden to place on the end-user to worry about metadata. Unless the customer is a GIS geek, they will never know to look for metadata. Having worked in a top #1 Fortune company, I will say that when it comes to data none of the users or analysts cared to look for the metadata. Rather they put faith in me as an expert to provide them data with the right standard and quality to meet their needs without them having to think about it.