google maps, page-4

Eric Schmidt has just left his post as google ceo.

His role was to educate the founders in the ways of running a business and run Google more like a business.

Now I think that google will be re-evaluating a lot of their side enterprises' ROI and the dropping of the Real Estate listings will be one of many decisions to retreat from some of their vast and sprawling list of non-commercial endeavours that will happen in the near future.

I honestly believe that Google's lack of support for updating maps is a strategic ceding of territory. To drop the maps support suddenly would be a shock to the market but for it to gradually run down won't make such big waves.

Today's revenue for google is in online marketing and tomorrow is OS systems (Cloud/Phone/Pads/iNose-rings whatever) - why would you care about the map stuff.

The "kool stuff" isn't really that cool anymore. It was great PR and helped them attract great coders/engineers - but it does not make them a cent, and that just can't last now they have shareholders and the growing shadow of Facebook.

They are getting lean and profitable - this makes analysts salivate. But this does not pose a great opportunity to Nearmap alone - unless we are all prepared to dilute, cash up and then hold our breath. But worldwide delivering the content that drives other locally based, more responsive enterprises/gov bodies/ngos... well the possibilities are huge.

Little gaps will open up everywhere as google slowly retreat, and the appetite for up-to-date, hi-res data grows.... Ipernica just have to stay afloat long enough.

6 quarters and counting... and I did not even look at the SP once today.

And let it be a lesson to Nearmap - even google can't quite work out the perfect "media" strategy for maps (all hail B2B). But then again google have only really got one thing right to date - it just happens that it became about the most profitable thing in the world.