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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from House Stuff.

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Speaker 1: What's hey there, everyone, and welcome to Tech Stuff. My

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Speaker 1: name is Jonathan Strickland, Host extraordinaire, and I'm Lauren Vocal Bomb.

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Speaker 1: I'm sitting across from it. I'm there you go. She's

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Speaker 1: basking in the glory that is the Strickland. It is

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Speaker 1: the end of a long day here at How Stuff

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Speaker 1: Works Headquarters. I don't know where I am anymore, which

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Speaker 1: is good because we're talking about Google Maps, so hopefully

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Speaker 1: I will be able to find some direction in my

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Speaker 1: life by the end of the show, because we live

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Speaker 1: in the incredible future. So you have a cellphone in

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Speaker 1: your pocket, right? Uh? Well, technically my cellphones at my desk,

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Speaker 1: but normally, yes, I would in fact have it in

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Speaker 1: my pocket. Okay, you have hypothetical cell phone in your

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Speaker 1: hypothetical pocket. I'll roll with that. Therefore, you are connected

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Speaker 1: to a network of systems that knows exactly where you are.

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Speaker 1: It's both reassuring and yet terrifying, which I think should

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Speaker 1: be the slogan for Google Maps. I used to have

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Speaker 1: that on my business card. Jonathan Strickland. Reassuring and yet terrifying. Well,

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Speaker 1: let's let's talk a little bit about Google Maps now. Now, Lauren,

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Speaker 1: I know and your research because we alluded to it

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Speaker 1: earlier before we actually sat down at the microphones. You

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Speaker 1: said you had sort of a kind of a grand

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Speaker 1: scale timeline of the Google Maps experience, which is not

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Speaker 1: what I was looking up. So I would be fascinating

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Speaker 1: to hear a little bit more about this, of course. Yes,

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Speaker 1: And this is an extremely comple complex timeline that I

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Speaker 1: that I paged together from a single document that Google

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Speaker 1: has up on its website. So don't don't tell them

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Speaker 1: how the sausage is made, Lauren, We are brilliant. They

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Speaker 1: don't know that. I actually want to go a little

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Speaker 1: bit back before their timeline starts to which was when

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Speaker 1: map Quest launched. Oh yeah, now see, I remember the

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Speaker 1: map Quest days. Uh, folks, For those of you who

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Speaker 1: have never used the web back in the mid nineties,

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Speaker 1: that quest was a revelation because it was this idea that, hey,

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Speaker 1: there's this place I want to go. But I don't

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Speaker 1: read maps very well. I don't like having to sit

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Speaker 1: there and stare at intersections, and I don't I don't know,

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Speaker 1: I don't understand how the folding works, or I haven't

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Speaker 1: purchased the right one for this area. I don't know

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Speaker 1: which streets are one way versus two way, and then

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Speaker 1: I end up making a plan that ends up wrecking

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Speaker 1: about a dozen cars, and I'm in a Michael Bay movie.

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Speaker 1: Suddenly these are all bad things in my personal experience. Uh,

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Speaker 1: Michael Bay, if you want me in your next movie anyway,

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Speaker 1: I can't explode the But the important thing here was

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Speaker 1: that you could actually plot out a pathway. Now, back

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Speaker 1: then that was pre mobile web for most parts, so

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Speaker 1: you ended up having to physically print the document that

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Speaker 1: would give you the turn by turn directions and then

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Speaker 1: take that with you in the car, in the place

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Speaker 1: of a more traditional map, which the company that created

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Speaker 1: map Quest actually began by making traditional maps, and they

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Speaker 1: still do. I think probably you couldn't. You could even

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Speaker 1: have a voice turn by turn if you had a

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Speaker 1: passenger read out, hey, you know that street we just passed,

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Speaker 1: We totally should have turned there. They could do it

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Speaker 1: in a robot voice if they if you really want

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Speaker 1: them to. Almost every single person who's written with me

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Speaker 1: eventually starts to talk like a robot. That's interesting and

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Speaker 1: all right for reassuring and terrifying. I'm not sure if

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Speaker 1: that one's reassuring at all anyway. Um So, so yeah,

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Speaker 1: let's you know, Matt Quest enjoyed a good several years

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Speaker 1: on the web pretty much unrivaled, and then then in

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Speaker 1: two thousand four, Google which at the time, do you

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Speaker 1: know what Google was doing in two thousand four, Jesus

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Speaker 1: when Google incorporates, I would have been discussing with Yahoo

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Speaker 1: in two thousand. No, I don't know what happened in

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Speaker 1: two Well neither do I. So this is this is terrific,

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Speaker 1: that's awesome. So that was a question of true you

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Speaker 1: really wanted to know? I bet Google was looking around. Well, okay,

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Speaker 1: so at this time Google had already started to figure

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Speaker 1: out how to monetize search. Okay, so this part I

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Speaker 1: can talk about just off the top of my head,

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Speaker 1: Google had cracked the code on monetizing search. And in fact,

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Speaker 1: if you look at Google as a company, a lot

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Speaker 1: of analysts will tell you Google really is an ad company,

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Speaker 1: not a search company. They serve up ads. They happen

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Speaker 1: to do that primarily through search. Well, they also determined

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Speaker 1: that searching it goes beyond just searching for a term

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Speaker 1: and getting a web page back. It also could mean

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Speaker 1: finding ways to get to stuff. Now, Google did not

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Speaker 1: necessarily have the people in the house to develop that

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Speaker 1: sort of technology from the ground up, right, and that

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Speaker 1: is why they acquired two companies. They acquired where to

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Speaker 1: and also Keyhole UM. Now, where Too was a Sydney

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Speaker 1: based company, UM Design, run by two Danish brothers, I believe,

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Speaker 1: and yes, I can never say that, So I'm glad

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Speaker 1: that you did um and uh and uh. Keyhole was

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Speaker 1: the company UM that had the software that would become

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Speaker 1: Google Earth. Okay, all right, so yeah, so you've got

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Speaker 1: the foundations for mapping software and and Google Earth, which

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Speaker 1: Google Earth is a is a wonderful tool and it's

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Speaker 1: really super cool. We will not be talking a lot

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Speaker 1: about Google Earth in this podcast because it really goes

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Speaker 1: outside the realm of what we're chatting about. We might

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Speaker 1: allude to it once or twice, but it's sort of

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Speaker 1: its own thing as opposed to you know, it's like

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Speaker 1: a separate product from Google Map. Sure, and bits of

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Speaker 1: it have been integrated to Google Maps to make it

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Speaker 1: the rich experience that it is today, But for the

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Speaker 1: most part it is a separate issue, but but integral

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Speaker 1: to to creating the Google Maps experience that that we

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Speaker 1: know of today. So that was that was two thousand four.

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Speaker 1: Two thousand five, UM February is when the the project

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Speaker 1: of Google Maps was announced on the Google blog, and

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Speaker 1: at that time, Google Maps was available only through two

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Speaker 1: web browsers. Those web browsers were Bob's who lived in

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Speaker 1: No wait, no, I'm sorry, web browsers not just two people.

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Speaker 1: One was an Internet Explorer, which was at the time

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Speaker 1: the dominant, overwhelmingly dominant browser. It's interesting to see like

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Speaker 1: the whole rise and fall of the various browsers. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And the other one was not Netscape. Netscape was already

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Speaker 1: off the charts at that point. It was Mozilla, which

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Speaker 1: we would eventually think of as Firefox because Firefox it

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Speaker 1: was not. You know, Firefox is not a Firefox is

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Speaker 1: a direct descendanto Mozilla, but it's kind of a branch

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Speaker 1: it split off. But anyway, at the time, those were

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Speaker 1: the two browsers that supported Google Maps, right um. Also

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Speaker 1: in two thousand five, in June, Google Earth and Google

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Speaker 1: Maps API both launched. Right a p I that's an

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Speaker 1: applications program that allows developers to create stuff that works

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Speaker 1: with whatever it is the product is, so lots of

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Speaker 1: different products have this, not just in Google. Application programming

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Speaker 1: interfaces technically what API stands for So this is an

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Speaker 1: interface that lets you build extra cool stuff that uses

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Speaker 1: the technology developed by someone else. So Facebook, for example,

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Speaker 1: has an API that allows people to build the various

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Speaker 1: games and other apps that run within the context of Facebook.

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Speaker 1: So the Google Maps API gave opportunities to other web

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Speaker 1: pages to have this stuff integrated into their page. So

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Speaker 1: you might see this was kind of a response to

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Speaker 1: hackers who hackers were sitting there and they were kind

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Speaker 1: of reverse engineering Google Maps to figure out how it

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Speaker 1: worked and to try and give it new abilities based

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Speaker 1: upon their own experience. And Google eventually said, you know what,

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Speaker 1: let's just go ahead and create an API to make

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Speaker 1: this easier because there's some really cool stuff happening out there. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And also once you once you give people capacity to

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Speaker 1: use your product on their page, then you can add

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Speaker 1: your advertising into it. And yet again they are an

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Speaker 1: advertising company. It turns out a lot more people use

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Speaker 1: your stuff if you make it easier to use. Who

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Speaker 1: would have funked it? Absolutely insane? Um And in October

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Speaker 1: of two five Maps for Mobile launched and uh, and

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Speaker 1: that was that was back early enough in in cell

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Speaker 1: phone service industry that maybe not that many people were

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Speaker 1: capable of using it. Yeah, two thousand five, you're talking

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Speaker 1: about a time when, uh, you know, smartphones. If you

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Speaker 1: listen to our history of Smartphones episodes and if you

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Speaker 1: have it, it's okay, we'll wait. But you know that

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Speaker 1: that's pretty early on in the history of smartphones. I

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Speaker 1: mean until we hit two thousand seven, when the iPhone

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Speaker 1: comes out, smartphones did not really become a big thing

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Speaker 1: in the consumer market. I mean, we had prosumers and executives,

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Speaker 1: people in the business market, people who needed to be

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Speaker 1: connected to their email all the time and bury all

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Speaker 1: that kind of stuff above our pay grade. You know,

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Speaker 1: they were taking advantage of the stuff. But yeah, it's

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Speaker 1: kind of interesting that the Google got into that. Now, granted,

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Speaker 1: it makes perfect sense, right because it's again, why why

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Speaker 1: are you using these map programs in the first place.

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Speaker 1: It's usually because you have to find your way to

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Speaker 1: some other location, and so it needs to do that.

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Speaker 1: Most often, possibly business travelers have people who are going places.

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Speaker 1: It turns out that if you want to get from

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Speaker 1: point A to point B, it's not always convenient to

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Speaker 1: carry a desktop computer with you lit the way, yes, yes,

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Speaker 1: um okay yeah. And then then two thousand and six

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Speaker 1: was when um, some of Google Earth's satellite images started

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Speaker 1: to be integrated into maps. Very cool, making everything shiny um.

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Speaker 1: And then in July Live Traffic on Mobile launched a

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Speaker 1: cool Yeah traffic is very cool. Yeah, we'll talk a

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Speaker 1: little bit about how they do that later on. It's

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Speaker 1: mostly neat. It knows where you are, but but not

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Speaker 1: you just you there. We go pretty much summed it up.

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Speaker 1: We will repeat it later in the show. Don't worry

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Speaker 1: with a little bit more clarity and fewer pronouns. Uh

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Speaker 1: so yeah. Two thousands seven was when my Maps launched,

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Speaker 1: My Maps being um uh the capacity for individual users

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Speaker 1: to make customized shareable maps without using that fancy API

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Speaker 1: kind of stuff and needing to have an actual developer

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Speaker 1: working in things. Cool. So this weird idea like, uh,

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Speaker 1: if you want to create a map that showed off,

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Speaker 1: say a particular hiking route or or jogging route or something,

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Speaker 1: and you could send it off to someone else saying

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Speaker 1: this is what I use because it's really well lit,

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Speaker 1: it's safe neighborhoods. That kind of stuff. Very useful. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: if you're having a progressive dinner party and you want

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Speaker 1: to show people the route from one house to the next,

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Speaker 1: something like that progressive dinner party, it sounds like a

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Speaker 1: different thing than it is. I usually have re aggressive

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Speaker 1: dinner parties where I just I just received further and

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Speaker 1: further into the background that everyone who's listening is like,

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Speaker 1: that is so not true. He just gets more and

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Speaker 1: more boisterous. He does, He's but I have I have

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Speaker 1: no transitions for any of that. In in may view,

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Speaker 1: it was a thing that he um and and that

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Speaker 1: was that was when. That was when they put some

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Speaker 1: cameras on top of some cars and sent them out

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Speaker 1: into the world and took a whole bunch of pictures

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Speaker 1: of everything, upsetting some people, which we will talk about

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Speaker 1: again later on in the podcast. Um but but but

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Speaker 1: giving you giving you the capacity to visit a place

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Speaker 1: that you have never been and get an idea of

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Speaker 1: what it's like to walk around there, very useful. I

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Speaker 1: I used this when I took a trip to New

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Speaker 1: York so I could figure out where I needed to

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Speaker 1: go to catch the subway, and so I was looking

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Speaker 1: for visual cues because I'm a Southerner and I was

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Speaker 1: lost in New York City and uh speaking speaking of which,

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Speaker 1: Google Transit was then integrated into maps in October. Yes,

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Speaker 1: very useful, so extremely useful, especially for people who do

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Speaker 1: not drive. Yes, this, this is the product that lets

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Speaker 1: you look up things like public transportation schedules in various cities.

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Speaker 1: And you know, they roll it out gradually. You know,

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Speaker 1: they have to incorporate the data from various cities to

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Speaker 1: to get it back to you. But it it is

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Speaker 1: really really nifty. I use it all the time here

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Speaker 1: in Atlanta where I'm going someplace where you know, I

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Speaker 1: don't regularly go there, and I want to know, Okay, well,

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Speaker 1: if I need to get there by a certain time,

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Speaker 1: what time do I need to leave my house to

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Speaker 1: make that happen? So yeah, very useful tool. Yeah. In

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Speaker 1: April of two then walking directions were added, further furthering

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Speaker 1: the capacity. I'm saying capacity a lot. This epiths. Okay,

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Speaker 1: I often say the word pumpkin for no apparent reasons. Pumpkin. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: in technology podcasts, I can't explain it. Excellent, Okay, Walking

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Speaker 1: directions April two eight, and then uh Matt Maker in August,

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Speaker 1: which let people start to write in with changes, um

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Speaker 1: corrections to Google Maps, which is one of the really

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Speaker 1: big important things we think about the software. We'll definitely

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Speaker 1: get into that too. Yes, Um October was Maps for

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Speaker 1: Android launched, something that I use frequently. I mean, seriously,

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Speaker 1: it's one of it's one of the reasons why I

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Speaker 1: don't think I could ever go back from having a smartphone.

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Speaker 1: Is the map feature, Absolutely, I mean they are integral

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Speaker 1: to my use. I do not remember what I did

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Speaker 1: before I had that information on my phone. I certainly

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Speaker 1: don't remember where I was. I spent a lot of

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Speaker 1: time printing out directions. Um. October of two thousand nine

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Speaker 1: is my next plot point in this in this audio drama,

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Speaker 1: and that was turned by turn navigation and Android, another

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Speaker 1: thing I use a lot, which, Yeah, back to that

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Speaker 1: robot voice. You don't have to have a friend speaking

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Speaker 1: in a robot voice anymore. Your your phone. You can

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Speaker 1: be friendless and your phone will do that for you.

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Speaker 1: I actually count my phone as one of my closest friends,

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Speaker 1: because otherwise the list is really short. Two thousand and

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Speaker 1: ten biking directions added. Yeah, yeah, that that's also pretty cool. Now,

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Speaker 1: and again, this is one of those things that the

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Speaker 1: crowdsourcing comes in handy. We'll talk about that again. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: By by August of two tho, google maps mobile heads

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Speaker 1: surpassed a hundred million monthly users. That's a bunch that's

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Speaker 1: more than two um and uh, making making google Maps

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Speaker 1: in fact so big um and so popular that by

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Speaker 1: November there was this really interesting news item where there

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Speaker 1: was an international dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: I read about this. So from what I understand, you

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Speaker 1: had the borders were established between Nicaragua and Costa Rican.

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Speaker 1: This is a border that's been it was. It was

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Speaker 1: a disputed border, which Google Maps, by the way, will

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Speaker 1: mark in red on international borders, but are in speed.

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Speaker 1: But but it had been settled in one way and uh.

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Speaker 1: And then Nicaragua started to dig dig out part of

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Speaker 1: the river that separates the two countries, like they were

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Speaker 1: dredging the river. And technically they were dredging the river

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Speaker 1: on the Costa Rica side of the border because they

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Speaker 1: took some exceptions. Costa Rica was like, hey, dude, what

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Speaker 1: are you doing? Except by saying hey dude, they actually

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Speaker 1: sent an armed group of people to stand at the

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Speaker 1: border of the river and stare directly at the Nicaragua

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Speaker 1: side and then the over and on the Nicaragua side.

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Speaker 1: You had the government say wait, wait wait, Google Maps says,

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Speaker 1: this is on our side. Uh, Whereas I think anyone

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Speaker 1: would tell you that was probably a disingenuous move. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that might have been. That might have been a little

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Speaker 1: bit of a passing the buck. But anyway, multimately it

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Speaker 1: was it was resolved that they were in fact on

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Speaker 1: the Costa Rica side, and they withdrew and uh. And

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Speaker 1: then Google also amended the map. But that's not the

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Speaker 1: only time it's happened. There have been other cases where

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Speaker 1: the particularly around bodies of water, because it's it's hard

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Speaker 1: to see the dotted line underneath because it's always underneath

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Speaker 1: all that water, so it's really hard to tell where

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Speaker 1: the border is. And Google sometimes will uh you know,

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Speaker 1: in their maps they have it laid out one way

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Speaker 1: and in quote unquote reality, which your mileage may vary. Uh,

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Speaker 1: it's it's a different it's a different layout. So there

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Speaker 1: have been cases like that. Yeah, right, right, But you know,

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Speaker 1: just just the fact that it was big enough that

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Speaker 1: that government could sit there and say, well, Google Map

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Speaker 1: said things impressive to me. I you know, I'm also

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Speaker 1: scary we can justify this war because Google said this,

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Speaker 1: I mean, grant there was no war here. I don't

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Speaker 1: want to. I'm I'm obviously exaggerating for effect. But um,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, UM. Two thousand eleven, uh, Android had Indoor

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Speaker 1: Maps premiere, which is the fun thing where if you

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Speaker 1: get lost, for example, in a mall instead of in

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Speaker 1: a neighborhood, um, you can call up a map on

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Speaker 1: your Android device and have it tell you where to go. Um.

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Speaker 1: And then in two thousand and twelve, which which we

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Speaker 1: are just recently out of, Google Plus Local premiered um.

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Speaker 1: And towards the end of the year, Apple and Google

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Speaker 1: Maps had some exciting things happen in that Apple totally

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Speaker 1: kicked Google Maps at the app Store for for the

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Speaker 1: premiere about three months, for about three months. Yeah, it

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Speaker 1: wasn't until December that it came back. So but we

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Speaker 1: will also talk about that a little bit later on

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Speaker 1: in the episode. Yeah. Well, and and now I think

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Speaker 1: I'm going to take a little bit of time here

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Speaker 1: to talk about the nuts and bolts of Google Maps. Um.

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Speaker 1: This is uh, this is the technical part of our episode.

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Speaker 1: And I'm not going to get too deep into this

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Speaker 1: because for one thing, it would be very difficult to

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Speaker 1: really really dive into it in an audio format. I

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Speaker 1: kind of visuals to help we can gesticulate all we want. Again,

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Speaker 1: it's not really going to come from helping Lauren. But

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Speaker 1: beyond that, unfortunately it's lost. But but a couple of

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Speaker 1: things I wanted to talk about before I really get

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Speaker 1: into the nuts and bolts. First of all, with the

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Speaker 1: satellite imagery, that's kind of interesting in that there have

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Speaker 1: been cases. You know, we talked about the border dispute.

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Speaker 1: There have also been cases where Google has been asked

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Speaker 1: by various entities to blur out some of their satellite imagery,

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Speaker 1: which we should also point out Google is partnering with

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Speaker 1: other companies to get the data and the images. It's

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Speaker 1: not that Google has satellites encircling the Earth constantly taking photos.

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Speaker 1: Uh So the satellite imageries is acquired through other other partners.

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Speaker 1: But there have been times where Google has blurred stuff out.

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Speaker 1: In some cases. It no longer does blur out a

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Speaker 1: few of those places like the White House, that kind

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Speaker 1: of thing, But it used to be governmenties. It's like yeah,

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Speaker 1: like like like military basis would be a big one, right,

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Speaker 1: and and so there have been times where Google has

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Speaker 1: blurred that stuff out a little bit to make it

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Speaker 1: less likely that someone might use Google Maps in a

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Speaker 1: military strike against a target. That kind of thing. Also, uh,

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Speaker 1: if you ever wanted to know what Area fifty one

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Speaker 1: looks like, you can actually see that on Google Maps. Yea,

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Speaker 1: you can see it's satellite you. Oh yeah, no, it's

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Speaker 1: it's it's there now. Granted, you know, we should also

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Speaker 1: point out the Area fifty one hasn't really been an

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Speaker 1: active secret base for a while. They moved that we

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Speaker 1: would have to talk to the conspiracy stuff guys. I'm

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Speaker 1: pretty sure they're in Colorado now. Actually that's not a joke.

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Speaker 1: I think they're really. I think the new base where

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Speaker 1: a lot of the secret Air Force stuff where they're

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Speaker 1: doing test flights of of secret aircraft is out of

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Speaker 1: Colorado and noth Area fifty one anymore. Um, that's just

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Speaker 1: off the top of my head. But anyway, it is

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Speaker 1: on there if you want to take a look at it.

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Speaker 1: But getting into the nuts and bolts, it all starts

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Speaker 1: with a project at Google that they call round Truth. Now,

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Speaker 1: if you think about all the Google Maps, you've seen

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Speaker 1: in the various ways that you can customize it, where

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Speaker 1: you can put push pens in, you can put different

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Speaker 1: routes in, and you can view it in a million

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Speaker 1: different ways. Ground truth is kind of the focal point

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Speaker 1: of all that. Think of it as like the proto map.

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Speaker 1: It has all this data and we're talking terabytes of

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Speaker 1: data here that are going into making the maps. What

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Speaker 1: they are that kind of terrifying amount of data that

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Speaker 1: we can't even really deal with on a mental level

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Speaker 1: because think about the stuff that's involved in a Google map.

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Speaker 1: You've got the actual graphical representation of the map. So

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Speaker 1: you've got you know, streets, You've got you might have

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Speaker 1: you know, outlines of buildings, you have, uh, the names

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Speaker 1: of landmarks, that kind of stuff. On top of that,

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Speaker 1: all of those those pieces of information are linked to

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Speaker 1: um coordinates, the geophysical coordinates right exactly, so latitude and longitude.

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Speaker 1: You know that those are all identified, so that when

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Speaker 1: you look at a map, you're looking at it the

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Speaker 1: correct you know way. It's not just a bunch of

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Speaker 1: random places. Hey, Mount Rushmore is right next to the

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Speaker 1: Grand Canyon, which is right next to Disney World, And

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Speaker 1: I mean that's not a little bit more precise than

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Speaker 1: it used to be. Is all we're saying we have

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Speaker 1: we have precisely to scale right. And then on top

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Speaker 1: of that you have things like business names included in

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Speaker 1: this information. It's it's lots of info alltogether, and it's

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Speaker 1: all there because you need to be able to look

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Speaker 1: at the map in one of a billion different ways.

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Speaker 1: So all this data is there, and then Google's algorithms

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Speaker 1: are what have to make sense of the information and

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Speaker 1: display the information that's relevant to you in the context

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Speaker 1: that you are using the maps in. When you when

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Speaker 1: you go in and say, hey, I want traffic, hair

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Speaker 1: want satellite, Hey I want to know how to get

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Speaker 1: from point A to point B versus Hey, I want

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Speaker 1: to know how many different pizza places are around point

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Speaker 1: B verse is I want to know where the top

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Speaker 1: rated restaurant in San Francisco is. I mean, these are

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Speaker 1: all different contexts you can use Google Maps in, and

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Speaker 1: so it has to be able to be very flexible. Now,

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Speaker 1: when you're actually looking at Google Maps, what you're looking

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Speaker 1: at is uh that has a top side a top

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Speaker 1: bar in a sidebar, and those are just basic HTML.

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Speaker 1: So it's just like which hypertext markup language. It's the

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Speaker 1: stuff that the web is made of and dreams as

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Speaker 1: it turns out that parts of life, um, and then

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Speaker 1: the rest of it it all well, originally it was

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Speaker 1: all x AML, which is extensible markup language. Now, extensible

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Speaker 1: markup language is a way of telling a client, meaning

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Speaker 1: a web browser in this case, how to display the information.

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Speaker 1: So it's a set of instructions that says, here's all

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Speaker 1: this data, and here's how you show the data to

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Speaker 1: the person looking at it. Okay, So it's just a

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Speaker 1: set of instructions, really, is what it What it boils

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Speaker 1: down to these days, didn't they which to a to

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Speaker 1: a JavaScript object? They've got JavaScript? Yeah, it's all JavaScript,

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Speaker 1: and it's all um, it's JavaScript is what they program

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Speaker 1: everything in. I mean, it's essentially back when it first started,

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Speaker 1: this was a C plus plus program. That was back

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Speaker 1: when the Dutch brothers were working on it. And now

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Speaker 1: it's uh, now it's all JavaScript stuff. But yeah, it's uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, it was really heavily using XML and uh

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Speaker 1: and something called x s t L, which is extensible

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Speaker 1: style sheet language. You would apply that to the XML

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Speaker 1: to get h t m L. All of that is

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Speaker 1: just very technical and It also ultimately doesn't really matter

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Speaker 1: because they kind of switched to something called maps g L,

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Speaker 1: which is a variant of the Web Graphics Library. That's

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Speaker 1: the Java scripture talking about part of the JavaScript Application

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Speaker 1: Programming Interface, and it renders interactive graphics, which is what

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Speaker 1: Google Maps are. It's an interactive graphic that you can

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Speaker 1: play with. It's actually really kind of cool the way

429
00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:01,479
Speaker 1: that works. Um. I have to give a lot of credit,

430
00:24:02,359 --> 00:24:06,879
Speaker 1: uh to Joel Webber. Now, Joel Webber is is a

431
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:09,560
Speaker 1: former graduate of Georgia Tech. But I don't hold that

432
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:16,760
Speaker 1: against him. Go Bulldogs, I'm a Gator. Ho Oh well,

433
00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:20,800
Speaker 1: then Joel and I both hate you. You learned things

434
00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:24,920
Speaker 1: every day, right, so I mean, granted, I never once

435
00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:26,960
Speaker 1: went to a football game, and I was not on

436
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,840
Speaker 1: the football team, so you weren't. You don't have to

437
00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:33,080
Speaker 1: hate me that much. She moves like a running back

438
00:24:33,160 --> 00:24:38,760
Speaker 1: as alarm, saying, um, anyway, what that means? I think

439
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:45,159
Speaker 1: running back is in baseball? So ANYWAYID sorry? Back to

440
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:49,600
Speaker 1: but no, no, Joel Webber had he took a lot

441
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:52,560
Speaker 1: of initiative early early on in Google Maps. He thought

442
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:54,639
Speaker 1: it was a very interesting product, and then he began

443
00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:57,440
Speaker 1: to reverse engineer it and kind of learned the way

444
00:24:57,440 --> 00:25:00,520
Speaker 1: it worked. So it wasn't until fairly recently that Google

445
00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:03,800
Speaker 1: started talking about what makes Google Maps tick. In fact,

446
00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:05,080
Speaker 1: I would say I think it was like two thousand

447
00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:07,679
Speaker 1: twelve when they started letting journalists come in and they

448
00:25:07,680 --> 00:25:11,280
Speaker 1: were essentially giving uh kind of a symposium on an

449
00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:13,639
Speaker 1: overview of how it works. But before that, it took

450
00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:17,680
Speaker 1: people who were actually to dig into it and exactly

451
00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:19,159
Speaker 1: and Joel Weber was one of those guys, and he

452
00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:20,960
Speaker 1: still has quite a bit of information up on the

453
00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:24,199
Speaker 1: web that explains what he did and and sort of

454
00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:28,080
Speaker 1: what he learned. And among those things, he learned that

455
00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:31,360
Speaker 1: the the center pain that the actual map that you're

456
00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:34,159
Speaker 1: looking at is made up of a grid of tiles,

457
00:25:34,760 --> 00:25:36,840
Speaker 1: and that grid is a hundred and twenty eight wide

458
00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:41,000
Speaker 1: and tall. Not all of those tiles are in view

459
00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:44,160
Speaker 1: of the map. So so I think of the think

460
00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:46,120
Speaker 1: of the map is kind of cutting off. It's it's

461
00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:50,320
Speaker 1: the center of this tiled puzzle and the border around it.

462
00:25:50,359 --> 00:25:53,000
Speaker 1: There are tiles that are outside of your your vision,

463
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:57,480
Speaker 1: and you know you can dragon and and move the

464
00:25:57,520 --> 00:25:59,960
Speaker 1: map around. You know, you hold down the mouse button,

465
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:02,520
Speaker 1: then you pull the mouse across, and then the map moves.

466
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:04,399
Speaker 1: I believe the Google term for this, by the way,

467
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:07,520
Speaker 1: it's slippy map. Yes, which I love this, and it

468
00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:10,560
Speaker 1: turns out the slippy map. The reason it works is

469
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:14,440
Speaker 1: that every single image you're looking at is absolutely positioned,

470
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:18,359
Speaker 1: and when you scroll, it is essentially picking up the

471
00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:21,160
Speaker 1: tiles that are off screen on one side and placing

472
00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:23,280
Speaker 1: them down on the other side. If you want to

473
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:26,040
Speaker 1: think of like a different way of of imagining this,

474
00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:28,919
Speaker 1: Joel had a great example. Just imagine that you're on

475
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:32,240
Speaker 1: a train and the way that you continue moving forward

476
00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:34,760
Speaker 1: is that you pick up the track you've just crossed

477
00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:36,639
Speaker 1: over and you put it down in front of you

478
00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:39,680
Speaker 1: so you can keep going. So as you're moving, you're

479
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:41,840
Speaker 1: you're removing the track behind you and putting it in

480
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:43,720
Speaker 1: front of you. And that way you just you don't

481
00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:47,080
Speaker 1: have to end up generating the entire map, which would

482
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:50,920
Speaker 1: be a huge drain on resources. It's clipping it down

483
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:55,160
Speaker 1: to just the integral right exactly the stuff that you need.

484
00:26:55,160 --> 00:26:58,680
Speaker 1: It can cash stuff that happens to be around. And

485
00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:03,040
Speaker 1: again you've you've got stuff that's two or three or

486
00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:07,280
Speaker 1: four fifty tiles off the border, right so as you're

487
00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:09,760
Speaker 1: pulling your first seeing stuff that's already loaded up, it's

488
00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:12,919
Speaker 1: just wasn't in your view, right, And then the tiles

489
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:15,520
Speaker 1: that are essentially moving to the other side are starting

490
00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:18,000
Speaker 1: to pull the data necessary in case you keep going

491
00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:20,560
Speaker 1: that way, So it gives you the sort of infinite

492
00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:26,120
Speaker 1: scroll ability um. And also it's it's very much a

493
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:30,119
Speaker 1: client side application, And what we mean by that is

494
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:34,359
Speaker 1: that while it's pulling data from servers, from Google servers,

495
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:37,760
Speaker 1: which has you know, have all this information, the most

496
00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:40,480
Speaker 1: of the work is being done within the clients, so

497
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:43,520
Speaker 1: on your computer, within the web browser, on your smartphone, whatever,

498
00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:46,520
Speaker 1: that's what's doing most of the work. And the good

499
00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:49,199
Speaker 1: thing about that is it means that frees up the

500
00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:51,960
Speaker 1: servers on Google side, because lots of people are using this,

501
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:55,600
Speaker 1: right and we talked about how much more than two,

502
00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:58,479
Speaker 1: and we talked about how many different ways you can

503
00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:00,800
Speaker 1: use it. So with that in mind, with all the

504
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:02,480
Speaker 1: different ways you can use it, all the data that

505
00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:06,040
Speaker 1: Google is holding, and the number of people, it's important

506
00:28:06,119 --> 00:28:09,000
Speaker 1: that we that Google had designed it and I say

507
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:11,199
Speaker 1: we that Google had designed the system in such a

508
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:15,399
Speaker 1: way that it doesn't bog down the server side or else.

509
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:17,520
Speaker 1: Every time we would try to use Google Maps, it

510
00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:20,440
Speaker 1: would take forever. And because a lot of that work

511
00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:23,560
Speaker 1: is being done by our devices, it means that, you know,

512
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:28,240
Speaker 1: if there's something slow to computer's fault. That's not exactly true,

513
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:30,800
Speaker 1: because I mean there could be other issues obviously, but

514
00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:35,040
Speaker 1: in general, it means that the system works more smoothly

515
00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:37,720
Speaker 1: than it would if it was all server side. So

516
00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:43,120
Speaker 1: I mean, like I said, I could get further into

517
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:47,720
Speaker 1: the actual nuts and bolts of what Google Maps is

518
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:50,680
Speaker 1: doing and how it's doing it, but ultimately I think

519
00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:55,040
Speaker 1: it would be more confusing than helpful. And also, we're

520
00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:57,120
Speaker 1: getting to a point now where I have got to

521
00:28:57,160 --> 00:29:00,160
Speaker 1: be completely upfront and honest with you guys, like all

522
00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 1: of this I've got a pretty good handle on, but

523
00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:04,000
Speaker 1: when I started going further in, it's going into a

524
00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:07,480
Speaker 1: level of development and programming that that's beyond my own

525
00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:10,600
Speaker 1: personal experience. So at that point I'd just be like, well,

526
00:29:11,120 --> 00:29:14,440
Speaker 1: according to this, this word that I don't know affects

527
00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:17,160
Speaker 1: this other word I don't know, and I'd rather just

528
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:22,400
Speaker 1: spare everybody that, yes, thank you, you're welcome, and now

529
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:25,800
Speaker 1: back to the show. Alright. So one of the many

530
00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:27,200
Speaker 1: topics that we said that we were going to come

531
00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:30,320
Speaker 1: back to was Google street View. And the reason that

532
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:31,920
Speaker 1: we wanted to come back to this is that it

533
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:34,360
Speaker 1: has been a little bit contentious because it's this fabulous

534
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:36,640
Speaker 1: technology that, like we said, let's you visit a place

535
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:39,040
Speaker 1: that you've never been to. Let's you walk around an

536
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:41,280
Speaker 1: area that you are perhaps going to visit or are

537
00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:44,400
Speaker 1: just curious about, without having to get on a plane

538
00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:45,840
Speaker 1: and get out in the wet, in the rain and

539
00:29:45,880 --> 00:29:49,240
Speaker 1: the cold. You know it, lets you do more once

540
00:29:49,280 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 1: you get to a location. Sure, yeah, however, and lets

541
00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:54,320
Speaker 1: you do more when you get to a location by

542
00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:56,880
Speaker 1: virtue of the fact that it's taken detailed pictures of

543
00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:01,040
Speaker 1: that location, including for example, the call ours and people

544
00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:05,640
Speaker 1: and children and dogs that were walking by when the

545
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:09,200
Speaker 1: photography was taken. And some people had a problem with this.

546
00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:12,000
Speaker 1: Some people said, hey, maybe maybe my baby should not

547
00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:14,800
Speaker 1: be on Google street View. Yeah, maybe you shouldn't have

548
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:20,520
Speaker 1: that picture of me coming out of the adult entertainment establishment,

549
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:25,440
Speaker 1: uh in downtown Atlanta. So that now whenever anyone looks

550
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:29,320
Speaker 1: at said adult entertainment establishment on Google street View, they

551
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:33,680
Speaker 1: see that, by the way, is a generic me, not

552
00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:37,560
Speaker 1: me me, it's the royal Me. I guess, I guess

553
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:41,800
Speaker 1: how that works. But but no, that's exactly that's exactly right. There.

554
00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:48,200
Speaker 1: There were several communities not and also individuals that objected

555
00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:52,680
Speaker 1: to Google street View, saying that, uh, it violated privacy,

556
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:54,560
Speaker 1: that they felt it was kind of creepy. There were

557
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:57,960
Speaker 1: people who who said that this is going to turn

558
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:01,959
Speaker 1: into a tool for thieve to use. They can they

559
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:04,680
Speaker 1: can virtually case a house without ever having to actually

560
00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:07,840
Speaker 1: go into the neighborhood. Sure, or the kind of higher

561
00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:09,920
Speaker 1: paranoia of this is going to turn into a government

562
00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:15,080
Speaker 1: tool for those countries that do not have CCTV already. Sure, yeah, yeah,

563
00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:18,560
Speaker 1: or or that uh, you know, maybe the day that

564
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:22,560
Speaker 1: Google street View went through my neighborhood was after I

565
00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:26,400
Speaker 1: had not not taking care of my lawn yet. And

566
00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:28,840
Speaker 1: so now then later when you try to sell your

567
00:31:28,840 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 1: house exactly, and people like, m, that's a dump. Yeah,

568
00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:35,520
Speaker 1: it may very well be any of those things. Now,

569
00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:37,600
Speaker 1: the flip side of that is that there were people

570
00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:40,920
Speaker 1: who had fun with Google street They would see that

571
00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:42,880
Speaker 1: the Google street View, they would either know that the

572
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:44,480
Speaker 1: car was scheduled to go down the street at a

573
00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:46,760
Speaker 1: certain time, or they would see it, and they would

574
00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:51,320
Speaker 1: stage various humorous things to happen so that it would

575
00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:53,440
Speaker 1: be captured by the Google street View car as it

576
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:56,120
Speaker 1: went by. We've talked about some of these in previous

577
00:31:56,160 --> 00:31:59,760
Speaker 1: episodes of Tech Stuff, where there were people who would

578
00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:05,360
Speaker 1: create a virtual parade on on a street and like, yeah,

579
00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:08,000
Speaker 1: it's fantastic. If you look at Google street View and

580
00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:10,200
Speaker 1: you look at you know, art projects or parade that

581
00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:13,120
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, it'll pull these these images up and

582
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:15,280
Speaker 1: you can actually see how creative people were. I saw

583
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:18,440
Speaker 1: one where it was a group of larper's all in

584
00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:23,320
Speaker 1: uh full foam, gearing on each other's wonderful You're going

585
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:28,360
Speaker 1: through a suburban neighborhood and like there's all out melee happening. Um.

586
00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:30,720
Speaker 1: I mean if it were me, I know what I

587
00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:32,520
Speaker 1: would want to do. Like anytime I knew that there

588
00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:34,600
Speaker 1: was gonna be a Google street View car going through

589
00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:36,920
Speaker 1: New York, I would be like, Okay, guys, it's Warriors

590
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:40,160
Speaker 1: cosplay time. Who wants to be the Baseball Furies? Who

591
00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:42,000
Speaker 1: wants to be the high Hats? We are gonna go

592
00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:45,120
Speaker 1: out there and bangers. We are gonna make some noise.

593
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:49,560
Speaker 1: Can you dig it? That's probably the whitest can you

594
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:53,520
Speaker 1: dig I think it probably was. History is being made

595
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:56,680
Speaker 1: right here. Come out and play a dear. That's a

596
00:32:56,760 --> 00:33:01,000
Speaker 1: documentary for you folks out there for warriors late seventies.

597
00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:05,480
Speaker 1: Look at that important important information. But yeah, so so

598
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:08,720
Speaker 1: it's gone, you know, both with the privacy issues and

599
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:11,120
Speaker 1: as well as like people you know, taking advantage of

600
00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:13,120
Speaker 1: it to have some fun. I think I think for

601
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:15,520
Speaker 1: the most part, Google enjoys the whole let's have fun

602
00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:17,120
Speaker 1: with a thing as long as it's within the realms

603
00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 1: of you know, safety and good taste. But the but

604
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,160
Speaker 1: as the privacy thing has been a lot more complicated.

605
00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:25,200
Speaker 1: I mean, you've had entire communities say we don't want this.

606
00:33:26,080 --> 00:33:28,440
Speaker 1: We're a gated community. You do not get this is

607
00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:31,800
Speaker 1: private property. You don't get to come in through here. Um.

608
00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:35,080
Speaker 1: You know. Google's whole motto is that they want to

609
00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:39,760
Speaker 1: index the information of the universe, and part of that

610
00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:42,600
Speaker 1: is all of the places you can go on the

611
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 1: planet Earth. So there is there has been this problem. Now.

612
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:48,880
Speaker 1: The other thing about street view is that it's actually

613
00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:52,760
Speaker 1: been very helpful with Google Maps in making them more accurate.

614
00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:55,000
Speaker 1: You know, we talked about earlier if you were just

615
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:58,240
Speaker 1: looking at a map, a physical map, a paper map

616
00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:00,560
Speaker 1: in your hands, you might not be able to find

617
00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:02,600
Speaker 1: the best route from where you are to where you're

618
00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:05,160
Speaker 1: going because you might not be able to see which

619
00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:10,000
Speaker 1: which roads are no longer open, or which ones are

620
00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:14,480
Speaker 1: one way streets. It's under construction exactly. So one of

621
00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:16,279
Speaker 1: the things that Google street View would do is that

622
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:19,480
Speaker 1: the routes that these cars would take would help validate

623
00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:24,400
Speaker 1: which routes are open to vehicles. So if if a

624
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:26,880
Speaker 1: Google street New car could not go up a street

625
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:29,280
Speaker 1: it's because it might be a one way street or whatever,

626
00:34:29,680 --> 00:34:32,239
Speaker 1: then that information was part of the information that be

627
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:35,600
Speaker 1: saved and would be integrated into that proto map I

628
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:38,799
Speaker 1: was talking about. And you know, really, when you think

629
00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:41,239
Speaker 1: about when you're getting directions from point A to point B,

630
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:44,839
Speaker 1: it's pretty complex. It has to take into account all

631
00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:47,319
Speaker 1: of those things and say, all right, this may not

632
00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:53,000
Speaker 1: seem like it's the fastest route, but it is, because yeah,

633
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:56,319
Speaker 1: it's really complex. But Google street View helped that out.

634
00:34:56,360 --> 00:34:59,000
Speaker 1: So the Google street View provided two different kinds of information.

635
00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:02,879
Speaker 1: It provided that the images, which that was the obvious one,

636
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:06,320
Speaker 1: top level, but also the route information by the actual

637
00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:08,239
Speaker 1: route the cars had to go through in order to

638
00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:11,360
Speaker 1: capture all those images. So that's it was sort of

639
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:15,640
Speaker 1: a validation method that Google used as well. On top

640
00:35:15,680 --> 00:35:18,000
Speaker 1: of that, we had the whole idea of this crowd sourcing,

641
00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:22,200
Speaker 1: which we had talked about a little bit earlier. But crowdsourcing.

642
00:35:22,400 --> 00:35:25,839
Speaker 1: Google uses crowdsourcing in two ways, or at least two

643
00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:30,520
Speaker 1: ways one of Google Maps. Google Maps. Google uses crowdsourcing

644
00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:33,040
Speaker 1: in lots of ways, but Google Maps in particular to

645
00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,239
Speaker 1: two main ways. One of them is traffic. Yeah, and uh,

646
00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:41,080
Speaker 1: generally speaking, they're tracking um, people who happened to be

647
00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:45,319
Speaker 1: using cell phones, particularly cell phones, using Google Maps and

648
00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:50,520
Speaker 1: tracking their progress either through uh, you know, little anonymous

649
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:54,200
Speaker 1: GPS tracking or anonymous uh cell phone tracking, you know,

650
00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:58,919
Speaker 1: as you move from from another And the idea is that, hey,

651
00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:02,200
Speaker 1: you know, if if the same user is able to

652
00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:05,520
Speaker 1: make their way through this this particular street at this

653
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:09,560
Speaker 1: particular speed, that gives me an idea of how how

654
00:36:09,640 --> 00:36:12,239
Speaker 1: fast traffic is going and whether or not, Yes, what

655
00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:14,560
Speaker 1: color code we need to break that up as Yeah,

656
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:17,279
Speaker 1: exactly like if they're if they're crawling, they're either not

657
00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:22,000
Speaker 1: in a car or traffic is bad. And this is aggregated,

658
00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:25,040
Speaker 1: so it's not just a single person. We're talking thousands

659
00:36:25,120 --> 00:36:28,880
Speaker 1: upon thousands of people. And the important thing to remember

660
00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:32,000
Speaker 1: is that, assuming that we're all on the up and

661
00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:35,440
Speaker 1: up here, it is anonymous data. Right. So Google doesn't

662
00:36:35,440 --> 00:36:38,319
Speaker 1: know it's a particular person. Right. It knows that it's

663
00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:40,880
Speaker 1: your phone, but it doesn't know that you are Jane

664
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:42,719
Speaker 1: Smith and that you are going from your home to

665
00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:45,560
Speaker 1: your office to pet smart to write. All it knows

666
00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:48,880
Speaker 1: is that this particular phone is moving at this particular

667
00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:53,280
Speaker 1: speed in this particular place. So beyond that, it doesn't

668
00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:56,640
Speaker 1: know that that phone belongs to Jane or that Jane

669
00:36:56,800 --> 00:37:02,200
Speaker 1: is on her way to commit a hit for the mob. Right.

670
00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:04,040
Speaker 1: It does not It does not record the starting and

671
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:06,760
Speaker 1: stopping points, which is another thing that people were worried

672
00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:09,839
Speaker 1: about with directions. Right. Right, of course, if I put

673
00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:12,080
Speaker 1: in I need to know how to get to this point,

674
00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:16,160
Speaker 1: is it going to be saved somewhere so that Google

675
00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:20,840
Speaker 1: knows that I went from here to there. Obviously, depending

676
00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:23,920
Speaker 1: upon what you're doing, that could be very sensitive information,

677
00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:27,600
Speaker 1: very undesirable share like job hunting. Yeah, let's say that

678
00:37:27,640 --> 00:37:29,680
Speaker 1: you know, my boss is like, hey, you know um,

679
00:37:29,719 --> 00:37:32,560
Speaker 1: this weird thing popped up. It turns out it looks

680
00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:34,319
Speaker 1: like you've been going to every single one of our

681
00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:37,239
Speaker 1: rivals recently, and a lot of our rifles are coming

682
00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:40,120
Speaker 1: up with really similar products to ours. That would be

683
00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:43,120
Speaker 1: I mean, clearly, you know that's unethical behavior on the

684
00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:45,960
Speaker 1: part of the user. But that's just sure. But you know,

685
00:37:46,080 --> 00:37:49,320
Speaker 1: for example, um, yeah, the other way that the traffic

686
00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:53,960
Speaker 1: data is garnered is via microwaves. Oh wow, so like

687
00:37:53,960 --> 00:37:59,080
Speaker 1: when people are making popcorn. Yes, okay, but that's but

688
00:37:59,080 --> 00:38:00,840
Speaker 1: that's another episode. That is, in fact an episode that

689
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:04,040
Speaker 1: the Jonathan and christ did previously. Oh yeah, that's right.

690
00:38:04,120 --> 00:38:06,000
Speaker 1: I was like, this sounds really familiar, but I didn't

691
00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:12,040
Speaker 1: research this. We've already done this bit something episodes kind

692
00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:14,480
Speaker 1: of hard to keep track. He has no idea anymore. No,

693
00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:16,520
Speaker 1: I don't even know where I am. That's why I

694
00:38:16,520 --> 00:38:19,839
Speaker 1: need this podcast. Also ages getting to him. Thank you.

695
00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:22,680
Speaker 1: There has to be one in every episode, doesn't there. Okay,

696
00:38:22,760 --> 00:38:26,200
Speaker 1: that's fair anyway. So that was one form of crowdsourcing.

697
00:38:26,239 --> 00:38:28,560
Speaker 1: The other one is you were talking about the the

698
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:33,120
Speaker 1: the map maker, where this idea about in your personal

699
00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:36,879
Speaker 1: experience using Google Maps, you might encounter a situation where

700
00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:40,719
Speaker 1: the map is not accurate, and it's allowing people, um

701
00:38:40,760 --> 00:38:46,080
Speaker 1: to be helpful. It's allowing you to inform the map experience. Yo, dude,

702
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:48,319
Speaker 1: you totally turned me down the wrong side of the

703
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:50,839
Speaker 1: street or the road you wanted me to take as

704
00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:53,680
Speaker 1: a private road and I cannot actually drive on it.

705
00:38:54,080 --> 00:38:58,920
Speaker 1: I encountered that actually yesterday. But it was because Google

706
00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:03,319
Speaker 1: Maps can't counter user stupidity, and in my case, it

707
00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:05,040
Speaker 1: was that I wasn't really thinking I was I was

708
00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:07,319
Speaker 1: going to a specific location on the mines anywhere. It

709
00:39:07,400 --> 00:39:09,759
Speaker 1: was I was going to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens so

710
00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:12,040
Speaker 1: I could see some pretty lights. Well, that's a classy

711
00:39:12,080 --> 00:39:14,560
Speaker 1: place to go down it is. I felt totally out

712
00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:19,040
Speaker 1: of place. My wife, however, completely at home, so trying

713
00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:21,160
Speaker 1: to get to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. But here's the thing.

714
00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:25,759
Speaker 1: Atlanta Botannical Gardens has a there's a parking structure that's

715
00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:28,239
Speaker 1: adjacent to Atlanta Botanical Gardens, but it's run by a

716
00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:32,320
Speaker 1: different company. Right, So when I put Atlanta Botanical Gardens

717
00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:34,600
Speaker 1: into the Google Maps program, it's telling me how to

718
00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:37,360
Speaker 1: get to the gardens themselves, which are off of little

719
00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:40,480
Speaker 1: private roads that I cannot actually can act success. If

720
00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:43,560
Speaker 1: I had put in the parking garage from the very beginning,

721
00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:46,040
Speaker 1: then it would have sent me the correct way to

722
00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:49,440
Speaker 1: get to actually enter the garden. I did not do that,

723
00:39:49,640 --> 00:39:52,480
Speaker 1: So in that case, I actually didn't counter a problem. Now, granted,

724
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:54,200
Speaker 1: you know, I just realized that I was on the

725
00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:55,920
Speaker 1: other side of the enormous park and I just had

726
00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:58,239
Speaker 1: to go around around and then I got there, so

727
00:39:58,239 --> 00:40:01,200
Speaker 1: it wasn't a big deal. But in other situations that

728
00:40:01,239 --> 00:40:05,600
Speaker 1: could be very So Matt Maker, lets you correct those

729
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:09,040
Speaker 1: sort of problems and send send information to Google and say, hey, guys,

730
00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:13,839
Speaker 1: just f y I fix yes. And we're pretty sure

731
00:40:13,880 --> 00:40:16,319
Speaker 1: that that's not based on a single users experience, because

732
00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:18,600
Speaker 1: that would be very dangerous. And you can easily troll

733
00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:22,040
Speaker 1: the system, you know you I can. Here's here's how

734
00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:25,400
Speaker 1: I would use it. If that were the case, everywhere

735
00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:28,720
Speaker 1: I would go, I would say that the closest, fastest

736
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:31,360
Speaker 1: route was not working, so that way I could guarantee

737
00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:34,200
Speaker 1: there never be any traffic because people would be routed

738
00:40:34,239 --> 00:40:37,279
Speaker 1: around it. That would be insidious. That's that's how I think.

739
00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:41,120
Speaker 1: This is. This is the way I think I think.

740
00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:44,359
Speaker 1: How can I manipulate the system to benefit me. That's

741
00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:47,879
Speaker 1: terrifically evil. Thank thank goodness, Google is slightly less evil

742
00:40:47,920 --> 00:40:52,839
Speaker 1: than you and has accounted for for such things. You know.

743
00:40:53,360 --> 00:40:57,880
Speaker 1: That's that's the thing. They really do anticipate people gaming

744
00:40:57,880 --> 00:41:03,680
Speaker 1: the system, and so they're wants to Google right. So

745
00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:06,799
Speaker 1: anyway that both of those methods are really important for

746
00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:10,040
Speaker 1: Google Maps, uh, you know, just to just to give

747
00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:13,400
Speaker 1: the best user experience possible. Because even though you know,

748
00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:16,600
Speaker 1: Google is in the business of selling ads essentially or

749
00:41:16,640 --> 00:41:19,719
Speaker 1: selling ads space, you know, they have to make products

750
00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:22,360
Speaker 1: that are are user friendly, and it's part of what

751
00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:24,520
Speaker 1: makes the product yours. It's part of part of what

752
00:41:24,600 --> 00:41:28,040
Speaker 1: makes it interactive. And it adds into that entire slippy

753
00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:31,399
Speaker 1: map concept of being able to to go in there

754
00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:33,680
Speaker 1: and mess around with it and really dig your fingers in.

755
00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:37,320
Speaker 1: And of course also you can add in your businesses

756
00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:42,279
Speaker 1: information into a map, you can edit business and businesses information,

757
00:41:42,360 --> 00:41:46,160
Speaker 1: you can provide reviews of a business. Yeah, it's it's

758
00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:50,640
Speaker 1: it's literally mapping to other parts of the Internet. So

759
00:41:50,680 --> 00:41:54,480
Speaker 1: it's not just showing you the physical location of a

760
00:41:54,800 --> 00:41:57,600
Speaker 1: place that you're searching for. It's giving you access to

761
00:41:57,719 --> 00:42:01,120
Speaker 1: other resources that gives you more information about the place

762
00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:03,440
Speaker 1: you're looking for. It's kind of this whole idea of

763
00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:06,160
Speaker 1: marrying the physical world in the digital world, so that

764
00:42:06,200 --> 00:42:09,920
Speaker 1: the two are integrated so tightly that we have access

765
00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:12,839
Speaker 1: to pretty much any kind of info you want at

766
00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:16,279
Speaker 1: any time you want, any place you want, which has

767
00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:20,160
Speaker 1: its benefits and its drawbacks. But I wanted to also

768
00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:22,759
Speaker 1: kind of touch back. We talked about this briefly, but

769
00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:24,680
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk a little bit about what happened

770
00:42:24,680 --> 00:42:28,799
Speaker 1: with Apple, right right. So Apple comes out with the

771
00:42:28,840 --> 00:42:32,120
Speaker 1: iPhone five as well as the release of the sixth

772
00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:35,719
Speaker 1: generation of iOS, the operating system for the iPhone and

773
00:42:35,760 --> 00:42:39,240
Speaker 1: iPad and iPod Touch, and for that it had developed

774
00:42:39,239 --> 00:42:42,640
Speaker 1: its own map system, Apple Maps, Apple Maps, and uh.

775
00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:45,640
Speaker 1: People began to notice that Google Maps was no longer

776
00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:51,080
Speaker 1: available within the Apple app Store, which I was struggling

777
00:42:51,080 --> 00:42:53,359
Speaker 1: to name earlier today, and then I got out, oh wait, yes,

778
00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:56,919
Speaker 1: they are the one that's called the app store, but yes,

779
00:42:57,920 --> 00:43:02,880
Speaker 1: Google Maps. Google and Apple had had sort of a

780
00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:06,040
Speaker 1: a weird relationship, a love hate relationship. There was a

781
00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:09,520
Speaker 1: time when Eric Schmidt, who was at that time the

782
00:43:09,560 --> 00:43:12,840
Speaker 1: CEO of Google. He was also sitting on the board

783
00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:17,040
Speaker 1: of directors of Apple, and then eventually he resigned his

784
00:43:17,080 --> 00:43:20,480
Speaker 1: position as a member of the board of directors UH

785
00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:22,799
Speaker 1: and he cited that it was because he felt there

786
00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:26,160
Speaker 1: was going to be an increasing conflict of interests between

787
00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:31,520
Speaker 1: the two companies. And and in fact, there were several

788
00:43:31,560 --> 00:43:35,640
Speaker 1: reports that Steve Jobs was more than a little put

789
00:43:35,640 --> 00:43:38,600
Speaker 1: out when Android hit the market because he said that

790
00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:43,680
Speaker 1: he felt that Android was copying Apple. Whether or not

791
00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:48,000
Speaker 1: you think that makes him somewhat hypocritical with his sighting

792
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:52,640
Speaker 1: of Picasso saying that good artists borrow great artist Steele. Uh,

793
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:56,840
Speaker 1: that's beside the point. Anyway, the die had been cast.

794
00:43:56,920 --> 00:44:00,719
Speaker 1: There was this contentious relationship between Apple and Google, and

795
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:05,040
Speaker 1: then Apple released its Apple Maps app that that introduced

796
00:44:05,560 --> 00:44:08,640
Speaker 1: turn by turn navigation, which was a huge deal. That

797
00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:11,120
Speaker 1: was something that Apple users have been asking for on

798
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:15,560
Speaker 1: the iPhone and had not gotten. They had still not gotten. Well, no, no,

799
00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:19,720
Speaker 1: because Apple Apple Maps does have it, but Apple Maps

800
00:44:19,800 --> 00:44:22,560
Speaker 1: was buggy. That was the problem. But that was the

801
00:44:22,560 --> 00:44:24,800
Speaker 1: thing was that they were asking for it for ages

802
00:44:25,480 --> 00:44:29,680
Speaker 1: um like. And once Google Maps came out for Android

803
00:44:29,719 --> 00:44:33,560
Speaker 1: and once it incorporated navigation. Uh I had a lot

804
00:44:33,600 --> 00:44:36,680
Speaker 1: of friends who had iPhones, who were very much irritated

805
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:38,440
Speaker 1: by this because they said, well, you know, Apple leads

806
00:44:38,480 --> 00:44:41,360
Speaker 1: the way in the smartphone experience. They defined the smartphone

807
00:44:41,400 --> 00:44:43,359
Speaker 1: experience for the consumer in the United States at least

808
00:44:43,880 --> 00:44:47,040
Speaker 1: several other parts of the world as well. Why are

809
00:44:47,080 --> 00:44:49,960
Speaker 1: they trailing behind Google? And part of the reason was that,

810
00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:52,719
Speaker 1: you know, Google didn't really want to work with Apple

811
00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:54,480
Speaker 1: so much, and Apple didn't really want to work with

812
00:44:54,560 --> 00:44:58,440
Speaker 1: Google so much. There was enough tension there that, uh,

813
00:44:58,440 --> 00:45:02,200
Speaker 1: that they were were increasingly becoming competitors in the market.

814
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:03,839
Speaker 1: And Google was like, I don't want to give you

815
00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:06,160
Speaker 1: my toys. I think I'm going to keep those toys right,

816
00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:08,720
Speaker 1: and that way that differentiates my toys from your toys,

817
00:45:08,760 --> 00:45:10,600
Speaker 1: and that way people will buy my toys and not

818
00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:13,239
Speaker 1: your toys, and uh. And Apple was like, well, fine,

819
00:45:13,280 --> 00:45:17,360
Speaker 1: we're gonna make our own stuff. And when which is

820
00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:20,880
Speaker 1: a perfectly valid response, I'm making it sound like they

821
00:45:20,880 --> 00:45:24,160
Speaker 1: were being petulant children. That's not that's not the case.

822
00:45:24,560 --> 00:45:27,960
Speaker 1: It's it made perfect business sense. What what maybe he

823
00:45:28,120 --> 00:45:30,640
Speaker 1: didn't make as much sense was that they released the

824
00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:35,719
Speaker 1: Maps app for iPhone, possibly too early. Yes, there were

825
00:45:35,719 --> 00:45:39,040
Speaker 1: a lot of people who felt that the application was

826
00:45:39,080 --> 00:45:41,040
Speaker 1: not as polished as it needed to be, and that

827
00:45:41,120 --> 00:45:43,560
Speaker 1: it did, in fact have lots of bugs in it. Now,

828
00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:48,719
Speaker 1: Apple got its map data from primarily from tom Tom,

829
00:45:48,760 --> 00:45:51,960
Speaker 1: which has great data, which is pretty okay. Yeah they do,

830
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:54,040
Speaker 1: they do, all right. Yeah, they they've they've got they

831
00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:56,520
Speaker 1: know their stuff and you know, and we mentioned earlier

832
00:45:56,560 --> 00:46:00,640
Speaker 1: Google gets their map data from sources and then has

833
00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:03,279
Speaker 1: to merge it all together. And Apple got it from

834
00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:05,080
Speaker 1: more than just Tom Tom, but Tom Tom was the

835
00:46:05,120 --> 00:46:09,400
Speaker 1: primary source of the map data for Apple. So something

836
00:46:09,480 --> 00:46:12,440
Speaker 1: was going on between the data that they were receiving

837
00:46:12,480 --> 00:46:16,120
Speaker 1: and the implementation of the application itself that made it

838
00:46:16,320 --> 00:46:19,759
Speaker 1: less accurate. There's something wiggy in that algorithm that we

839
00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:23,360
Speaker 1: were talking about earlier that actually pulls the the important

840
00:46:23,400 --> 00:46:27,080
Speaker 1: information out and presents it to you. Yeah, so you

841
00:46:27,160 --> 00:46:29,640
Speaker 1: might not notice that there is a river in the

842
00:46:29,680 --> 00:46:33,840
Speaker 1: way of your route because Apple failed to pay attention

843
00:46:33,840 --> 00:46:38,360
Speaker 1: to that. Or there was a pretty well reported incident

844
00:46:38,719 --> 00:46:42,960
Speaker 1: where the Government of Australia said don't use Apple Maps

845
00:46:43,040 --> 00:46:46,960
Speaker 1: because it's it's taking this one route that should go

846
00:46:47,640 --> 00:46:52,239
Speaker 1: a fairly simple way and putting people through Yeah, it

847
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:55,160
Speaker 1: was a desert. It was essentially it was essentially routing

848
00:46:55,160 --> 00:46:57,560
Speaker 1: people through a huge desert that was a part of

849
00:46:57,560 --> 00:47:01,239
Speaker 1: an enormous park in Australia, and the fear was that

850
00:47:01,280 --> 00:47:05,160
Speaker 1: people would be using the application to try and go someplace,

851
00:47:05,160 --> 00:47:09,319
Speaker 1: they would get rerouted through the desert, lose signal, lose

852
00:47:09,360 --> 00:47:11,480
Speaker 1: signal and not have enough gas to get out and

853
00:47:12,360 --> 00:47:15,400
Speaker 1: in and then accidental walkabouts are not really Yeah, and

854
00:47:15,719 --> 00:47:17,920
Speaker 1: in Australia at the time of the story, it was

855
00:47:17,960 --> 00:47:20,640
Speaker 1: just starting to get into summer. You know here it's here,

856
00:47:20,640 --> 00:47:23,600
Speaker 1: it's winter because we live on the upright side of

857
00:47:23,640 --> 00:47:25,279
Speaker 1: the world and they live on the upside downside of

858
00:47:25,280 --> 00:47:30,440
Speaker 1: the world. I love you Australians also Kiwi's I love

859
00:47:30,480 --> 00:47:36,160
Speaker 1: you too, um. But yeah, anyway, so this was this

860
00:47:36,200 --> 00:47:39,400
Speaker 1: was a big issue, and so it was a double whammy,

861
00:47:39,520 --> 00:47:43,359
Speaker 1: right because they kicked Google out of the store. The

862
00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:46,880
Speaker 1: Apple app was not fully baked. In fact, famously, the

863
00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:49,359
Speaker 1: guy who was in charge of the whole iOS thing

864
00:47:49,640 --> 00:47:54,319
Speaker 1: was asked to leave Apple, became a consultant and then

865
00:47:54,440 --> 00:47:57,799
Speaker 1: was kind of pushed out. Yeah, and I mean it

866
00:47:57,880 --> 00:48:00,920
Speaker 1: was it was a huge hubbub. I I had so

867
00:48:01,040 --> 00:48:04,520
Speaker 1: much about hubbub coming through coming through my internet perceptors

868
00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:07,400
Speaker 1: that I just did not even update my phone. I

869
00:48:07,400 --> 00:48:10,080
Speaker 1: I use an iPhone and I did not upgrade. I

870
00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:12,520
Speaker 1: didn't want to mess with Apple Maps. I chose to

871
00:48:12,600 --> 00:48:15,560
Speaker 1: ignore the entire situation and and a lot of people

872
00:48:15,600 --> 00:48:18,759
Speaker 1: did that. And about three months later, so it was

873
00:48:19,040 --> 00:48:22,000
Speaker 1: late December of two thousand and twelve, mid to late December,

874
00:48:22,440 --> 00:48:28,040
Speaker 1: in mid December, when Google Maps reappeared in the App Store,

875
00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:31,920
Speaker 1: complete with turn by turn navigation and uh, and Google

876
00:48:32,360 --> 00:48:34,680
Speaker 1: took the opportunity to kind of twist the knife a

877
00:48:34,719 --> 00:48:38,279
Speaker 1: little bit and talk about how great their map data was.

878
00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:42,400
Speaker 1: Keeping in mind again the Apple data wasn't necessarily what

879
00:48:42,480 --> 00:48:45,120
Speaker 1: was wrong. It was something else between the data and

880
00:48:45,160 --> 00:48:48,160
Speaker 1: the implementation. But at any rate, Google definitely took a

881
00:48:48,200 --> 00:48:51,120
Speaker 1: little bit of time to kind of say, look, how

882
00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:53,520
Speaker 1: awesome we are. Yeah, well they they also mean it

883
00:48:53,560 --> 00:48:56,959
Speaker 1: became the most popular download within hours on the app Store.

884
00:48:57,360 --> 00:49:00,640
Speaker 1: You know, clearly people had been clear wearing for it,

885
00:49:00,880 --> 00:49:04,480
Speaker 1: and and that um also I might have I might

886
00:49:04,520 --> 00:49:06,440
Speaker 1: have missed this one on my timeline. But but in

887
00:49:06,480 --> 00:49:12,880
Speaker 1: December of two twelve, Google Maps hit one billion monthly

888
00:49:12,960 --> 00:49:16,240
Speaker 1: active users. That's a lot of people trying to find

889
00:49:16,239 --> 00:49:20,759
Speaker 1: their way to the same restaurants I'm going to, so

890
00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:23,239
Speaker 1: why I can never get in? I just need to

891
00:49:23,239 --> 00:49:25,720
Speaker 1: be a little more famous people, just a little more famous.

892
00:49:25,760 --> 00:49:28,160
Speaker 1: I'm not quite famous enough to get a good table

893
00:49:28,200 --> 00:49:30,520
Speaker 1: at a restaurant. So if you guys can help me

894
00:49:30,560 --> 00:49:32,560
Speaker 1: with that, that'd be awesome. If you can clout me

895
00:49:32,680 --> 00:49:36,919
Speaker 1: up in good table and restaurant, I would really appreciate it.

896
00:49:37,120 --> 00:49:39,000
Speaker 1: I don't know that that's going to help, but you know,

897
00:49:39,040 --> 00:49:41,880
Speaker 1: I can't hurt you can. You can bring in your

898
00:49:41,880 --> 00:49:44,400
Speaker 1: phone and just say, like, I have clus look at me,

899
00:49:44,560 --> 00:49:48,560
Speaker 1: Look how important I am. Yeah. Yeah, McDonald's does not

900
00:49:48,640 --> 00:49:52,240
Speaker 1: take that seriously. Now do it? Do what you can listeners,

901
00:49:52,320 --> 00:49:55,439
Speaker 1: keep us, keep us well fed. Yeah, So we wanted

902
00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:58,120
Speaker 1: to kind of conclude this episode talking about what is

903
00:49:58,320 --> 00:50:01,480
Speaker 1: in store for Google Maps. What's the future, like, you

904
00:50:01,480 --> 00:50:05,360
Speaker 1: know what, what is Google working towards to make Google

905
00:50:05,400 --> 00:50:12,400
Speaker 1: Maps even more interesting and yet potentially worrisome? It's just

906
00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:15,560
Speaker 1: the way it is. Again, what was that? What was

907
00:50:15,560 --> 00:50:18,839
Speaker 1: their catchphrase from earlier? I have zero I'm like a goldfish,

908
00:50:19,320 --> 00:50:22,480
Speaker 1: reassuring and yet terrifying. Something like that? Were you sharing

909
00:50:22,480 --> 00:50:24,120
Speaker 1: and yet terrified? I don't have my business cards, so

910
00:50:24,160 --> 00:50:27,879
Speaker 1: I can't tell you for sure. Um according to uh

911
00:50:27,920 --> 00:50:31,600
Speaker 1: to Michael Jones, who is one of the employees at Google,

912
00:50:31,680 --> 00:50:37,360
Speaker 1: the chief technology advocate, I think is his is his title.

913
00:50:37,440 --> 00:50:40,319
Speaker 1: It is a great title. Google names things so well.

914
00:50:40,400 --> 00:50:44,960
Speaker 1: I'm jealous of their entire marketing department. But um, his

915
00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:46,959
Speaker 1: his vision of the future. Um he was just talking

916
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:50,399
Speaker 1: about the other day in interview, is that Google really

917
00:50:50,440 --> 00:50:56,080
Speaker 1: wants to provide individualized information on the go, which means

918
00:50:56,160 --> 00:50:58,600
Speaker 1: that as you're as you're walking down a street with

919
00:50:58,760 --> 00:51:02,320
Speaker 1: your Google Maps app been, it might start telling you like, oh, hey,

920
00:51:02,840 --> 00:51:05,279
Speaker 1: scene from your favorite movie was filmed in that lot

921
00:51:05,360 --> 00:51:06,879
Speaker 1: over there. Maybe you want to go check that out.

922
00:51:06,960 --> 00:51:09,279
Speaker 1: Or oh hey, you really like Vietnamese food, and the

923
00:51:09,400 --> 00:51:12,600
Speaker 1: highest rated Vietnamese restaurant within a five mile radius is

924
00:51:12,719 --> 00:51:14,239
Speaker 1: right over there on the other side of the block,

925
00:51:14,280 --> 00:51:15,879
Speaker 1: so you might want to go check that that out.

926
00:51:16,520 --> 00:51:18,799
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool, I mean. But the idea here is

927
00:51:18,840 --> 00:51:22,719
Speaker 1: that Google is not just using your previous use of

928
00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:26,719
Speaker 1: Google Maps to determine this. They're using everything like your

929
00:51:26,960 --> 00:51:31,120
Speaker 1: actual search history, your search history, your Google Plus account,

930
00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:34,440
Speaker 1: all of that integrated information that starts getting just a

931
00:51:34,480 --> 00:51:38,520
Speaker 1: little bit stockery. Yeah, and you wonder to what extent

932
00:51:38,600 --> 00:51:42,200
Speaker 1: could this go to? And I made some very goofy

933
00:51:43,320 --> 00:51:46,160
Speaker 1: ridiculous examples to Lauren before the show, which I'm not

934
00:51:46,160 --> 00:51:49,640
Speaker 1: going to repeat because really it's just they got silly.

935
00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:52,319
Speaker 1: But the point being that if if you like, let's

936
00:51:52,320 --> 00:51:54,280
Speaker 1: say that you have a job and you you've logged

937
00:51:54,320 --> 00:51:58,399
Speaker 1: into a job version of your Gmail um and your

938
00:51:58,480 --> 00:52:01,520
Speaker 1: job is with the c d C sare, so you

939
00:52:01,600 --> 00:52:04,520
Speaker 1: might do a lot of different searches on very specific

940
00:52:04,640 --> 00:52:09,880
Speaker 1: types of health problems. What would Google maps think of that? Like,

941
00:52:09,920 --> 00:52:11,719
Speaker 1: where would the Google Maps like do you want to

942
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:14,880
Speaker 1: go to the free clinic? I mean, it's it's you know,

943
00:52:14,880 --> 00:52:17,840
Speaker 1: it just it raises questions now and then from a

944
00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:20,200
Speaker 1: from a broader perspective, let's say that you're using your

945
00:52:20,200 --> 00:52:23,960
Speaker 1: own personal Google account and you do a lot of

946
00:52:24,040 --> 00:52:27,360
Speaker 1: you know, bizarre searches. Uh, it kind of makes you wonder,

947
00:52:27,440 --> 00:52:30,920
Speaker 1: like how much of this gets personalized. It's supposed to

948
00:52:30,920 --> 00:52:33,080
Speaker 1: be anonymous, so Google is not supposed to actually know

949
00:52:33,200 --> 00:52:36,680
Speaker 1: that it that this is tied to you personally. Again,

950
00:52:36,760 --> 00:52:39,399
Speaker 1: it's it's it's the Royal you. It's that it's it's

951
00:52:39,400 --> 00:52:42,799
Speaker 1: not you, Jane Smith. It's it's it's the person who

952
00:52:42,840 --> 00:52:45,160
Speaker 1: does these searches and goes to these places would like

953
00:52:45,320 --> 00:52:48,560
Speaker 1: these things, and it's hard for us to kind of

954
00:52:49,200 --> 00:52:52,279
Speaker 1: reconcile that in our heads and divorce that from who

955
00:52:52,320 --> 00:52:55,200
Speaker 1: we are personally. So it starts to feel like Google

956
00:52:55,560 --> 00:52:57,919
Speaker 1: not only knows where we go and what we do,

957
00:52:58,160 --> 00:53:00,319
Speaker 1: but it's telling us what to do now when we

958
00:53:00,360 --> 00:53:03,719
Speaker 1: need to follow those instructions carefully. Um, it is a

959
00:53:03,760 --> 00:53:07,520
Speaker 1: little weird. Now this being said, I personally think that

960
00:53:07,560 --> 00:53:09,439
Speaker 1: it's kind of an interesting thing, and I'm I'm more

961
00:53:10,040 --> 00:53:12,200
Speaker 1: I'm open minded enough to say, bring it on. I

962
00:53:12,200 --> 00:53:13,759
Speaker 1: want to see how this works out, and I want

963
00:53:13,760 --> 00:53:17,200
Speaker 1: to see like the kind of suggestions Google comes up with. Absolutely,

964
00:53:17,360 --> 00:53:20,520
Speaker 1: And uh, I've been using field Trip, which is a

965
00:53:20,560 --> 00:53:23,239
Speaker 1: Google app. I talked about it with Chris in a

966
00:53:23,280 --> 00:53:27,000
Speaker 1: previous episode a few episodes ago, where it's it's a

967
00:53:27,080 --> 00:53:30,560
Speaker 1: location based service that looks at where you are based

968
00:53:30,600 --> 00:53:33,279
Speaker 1: upon you know. Occasionally it's pining your your device to

969
00:53:33,320 --> 00:53:37,520
Speaker 1: see where you are based upon your either cellular triangulation

970
00:53:37,600 --> 00:53:40,640
Speaker 1: or GPS or whatever. And then it says, let's take

971
00:53:40,640 --> 00:53:42,399
Speaker 1: a quick look in this area and see if there's

972
00:53:42,440 --> 00:53:45,399
Speaker 1: anything the area that would interest him. And you kind

973
00:53:45,400 --> 00:53:47,520
Speaker 1: of or her and you you kind of let the

974
00:53:47,560 --> 00:53:50,680
Speaker 1: app know what you are, what your interests are. Okay,

975
00:53:50,680 --> 00:53:54,239
Speaker 1: so it's not broad categories. I want sports or I

976
00:53:54,320 --> 00:53:57,880
Speaker 1: don't want restaurants mine as always I want food is

977
00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:00,400
Speaker 1: always a food in history. Those are the too that

978
00:54:00,560 --> 00:54:03,080
Speaker 1: I will always pick. And so I get a lot

979
00:54:03,120 --> 00:54:06,880
Speaker 1: of stuff like best Beignet's in Atlanta, which honestly not

980
00:54:07,000 --> 00:54:12,120
Speaker 1: a lot of competition there, but uh and uh and

981
00:54:12,120 --> 00:54:16,840
Speaker 1: and anyway, it's a parish by the way, anyway, the

982
00:54:16,880 --> 00:54:20,759
Speaker 1: p A R I s H free plug uh the

983
00:54:21,160 --> 00:54:25,920
Speaker 1: any anyway. The The app does this by by checking

984
00:54:26,239 --> 00:54:29,759
Speaker 1: its database and and referencing against your physical location and

985
00:54:30,080 --> 00:54:32,160
Speaker 1: occasionally giving you stuff. And you can even tell it

986
00:54:32,200 --> 00:54:34,439
Speaker 1: how frequently you went up to how often I want

987
00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:37,319
Speaker 1: them all the bloody time, or do or only when

988
00:54:37,360 --> 00:54:40,200
Speaker 1: I opened the app or sometime in between. I've got

989
00:54:40,200 --> 00:54:41,640
Speaker 1: it in the in between because I don't want to

990
00:54:41,640 --> 00:54:43,680
Speaker 1: get I don't want my phone vibrating every five seconds

991
00:54:43,719 --> 00:54:46,240
Speaker 1: thinking I've got a message and it turns out it's hey,

992
00:54:46,400 --> 00:54:50,000
Speaker 1: there's a place that sells burgers. You like food, and

993
00:54:50,040 --> 00:54:52,400
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't need it quite that frequently, but

994
00:54:52,480 --> 00:54:54,840
Speaker 1: that that's kind of an example of what Google Maps

995
00:54:54,840 --> 00:54:57,640
Speaker 1: could incorporate in the future. But in the case of

996
00:54:57,680 --> 00:54:59,680
Speaker 1: Google Maps, it would be even more personal. So it

997
00:54:59,680 --> 00:55:01,600
Speaker 1: would be based like if if it noticed that I

998
00:55:01,600 --> 00:55:04,520
Speaker 1: had done a lot of searches for like Indian food.

999
00:55:04,560 --> 00:55:06,960
Speaker 1: I love Indian food, and there are only a few

1000
00:55:07,080 --> 00:55:11,280
Speaker 1: restaurants that I know of that serve really good, authentic

1001
00:55:11,320 --> 00:55:13,480
Speaker 1: Indian food that are near me, but I know there

1002
00:55:13,480 --> 00:55:16,400
Speaker 1: are a lot more that are further out of my neighborhood.

1003
00:55:17,200 --> 00:55:20,080
Speaker 1: So I've done a lot of searches. Well, in the future,

1004
00:55:20,080 --> 00:55:23,720
Speaker 1: Google Maps will be taking uh, well, we'll notice second

1005
00:55:23,719 --> 00:55:26,200
Speaker 1: of stuff. It'll cross reference with my search history. And

1006
00:55:26,280 --> 00:55:28,320
Speaker 1: let's say I go to some other city, like I

1007
00:55:28,360 --> 00:55:32,040
Speaker 1: don't know, London, and it's just hey, you like Indian food,

1008
00:55:32,280 --> 00:55:34,080
Speaker 1: let me tell you where to go. We've got we've

1009
00:55:34,120 --> 00:55:36,840
Speaker 1: got a thing for you. Yeah, you want some kebabs,

1010
00:55:37,080 --> 00:55:39,480
Speaker 1: you can give you kebabs, or if you want real

1011
00:55:39,520 --> 00:55:41,800
Speaker 1: Indian food, if you want if you want the various

1012
00:55:41,840 --> 00:55:47,560
Speaker 1: curries or vendelose I'm a ndelo fiend then um yeah.

1013
00:55:47,719 --> 00:55:50,600
Speaker 1: So I mean, in that sense, it's interesting, but there

1014
00:55:50,800 --> 00:55:55,960
Speaker 1: is still this lingering fear that perhaps this information is

1015
00:55:56,040 --> 00:55:59,759
Speaker 1: somehow being tied to us as our identities, and that

1016
00:56:00,040 --> 00:56:01,960
Speaker 1: it could that it could be stored or us and

1017
00:56:01,960 --> 00:56:04,879
Speaker 1: get used against us in some way, or or even

1018
00:56:04,920 --> 00:56:07,319
Speaker 1: even just some people get a little bit creeped out.

1019
00:56:07,320 --> 00:56:08,759
Speaker 1: I get a little bit creeped out that I'm being

1020
00:56:08,800 --> 00:56:12,080
Speaker 1: advertised to so specifically. Sometimes I mean, when it's when

1021
00:56:12,160 --> 00:56:16,040
Speaker 1: that's useful, it's terrific, But very occasionally I just get

1022
00:56:16,040 --> 00:56:17,680
Speaker 1: this pin in the back of my head that's like,

1023
00:56:17,760 --> 00:56:20,040
Speaker 1: why does it know that about me? It makes me

1024
00:56:20,080 --> 00:56:22,760
Speaker 1: think that in the future, we're all going to only

1025
00:56:22,840 --> 00:56:26,120
Speaker 1: see the stuff that we are truly interested in and

1026
00:56:26,200 --> 00:56:28,799
Speaker 1: not see all the other stuff that we're not interested in.

1027
00:56:28,840 --> 00:56:34,280
Speaker 1: And I'm okay with that because occasionally I I flipped

1028
00:56:34,320 --> 00:56:38,080
Speaker 1: through something like Reddit or I'm randomly changing channels, and

1029
00:56:38,120 --> 00:56:41,839
Speaker 1: I think I could have lived ever knowing that that

1030
00:56:41,920 --> 00:56:45,279
Speaker 1: was a thing. And if I have my life where

1031
00:56:45,520 --> 00:56:47,439
Speaker 1: I mean, granted, it also means that you're it also

1032
00:56:47,480 --> 00:56:49,560
Speaker 1: means you you're less adventurous and all. Yeah, yeah, I mean,

1033
00:56:49,560 --> 00:56:51,640
Speaker 1: I mean the process of discovery is really terrific. And

1034
00:56:51,680 --> 00:56:53,920
Speaker 1: also I mean, what will it Will it de authenticate

1035
00:56:53,920 --> 00:56:57,160
Speaker 1: the process of discovery? Will you never again have the

1036
00:56:57,440 --> 00:57:00,200
Speaker 1: terrific feeling of walking down the street and going, hey,

1037
00:57:00,239 --> 00:57:02,000
Speaker 1: that hole in the wall looks terrific, and walking in

1038
00:57:02,040 --> 00:57:04,280
Speaker 1: and having one of the best meals of your life. Yeah. Yeah,

1039
00:57:04,360 --> 00:57:05,799
Speaker 1: I mean, there are a lot of questions here. Maybe

1040
00:57:05,840 --> 00:57:08,400
Speaker 1: maybe Google will build that into the algorithm where occasionally

1041
00:57:08,400 --> 00:57:10,879
Speaker 1: ill just so, like, you know, Lauren never comes out

1042
00:57:10,880 --> 00:57:14,880
Speaker 1: of her shell, and just down the street is a

1043
00:57:15,600 --> 00:57:20,160
Speaker 1: tap dancing and jazz dancing uh school. We're going to

1044
00:57:20,280 --> 00:57:22,760
Speaker 1: convince her to go in there and take classes, and

1045
00:57:22,800 --> 00:57:24,960
Speaker 1: then she's gonna have a recital and everyone's gonna go

1046
00:57:25,240 --> 00:57:28,480
Speaker 1: It's not recital, is it? Whatever? The dance equivalent is

1047
00:57:28,720 --> 00:57:31,400
Speaker 1: absolutely no clue. Anyway, we'll see. That's that's why it

1048
00:57:31,440 --> 00:57:34,120
Speaker 1: would pop up for you, because it would say, like,

1049
00:57:34,160 --> 00:57:36,120
Speaker 1: you know, what Lauren needs, She needs to get out more,

1050
00:57:36,640 --> 00:57:41,040
Speaker 1: she needs to needs to to shed this shy exterior

1051
00:57:41,640 --> 00:57:45,960
Speaker 1: and and just let her inner choreographer shine. I think

1052
00:57:45,960 --> 00:57:47,440
Speaker 1: I think that if Google can talk, that is in

1053
00:57:47,440 --> 00:57:49,800
Speaker 1: fact what it would say about me. I'm pretty sure

1054
00:57:49,800 --> 00:57:55,680
Speaker 1: Google would never stop slapping me. Just grow up, grow

1055
00:57:55,800 --> 00:57:59,040
Speaker 1: up Strickland. Pretty much, what do we get all the time?

1056
00:57:59,120 --> 00:58:01,120
Speaker 1: That's that's what if if it weren't for a for

1057
00:58:01,240 --> 00:58:05,680
Speaker 1: a employee handbook laws here, it has to works. I'm

1058
00:58:05,680 --> 00:58:08,960
Speaker 1: sure that would happen in the office. I've not slapped here.

1059
00:58:09,080 --> 00:58:14,760
Speaker 1: It's fine, it's happened, Josh. Josh alternately praises me and

1060
00:58:14,840 --> 00:58:20,360
Speaker 1: hits me. It's it's nice, kid, I kid, kid, our stuff.

1061
00:58:20,360 --> 00:58:23,840
Speaker 1: You should know. Fans they are great people. They are

1062
00:58:24,520 --> 00:58:27,640
Speaker 1: he'll hit me if I don't say that. Alright, So yeah,

1063
00:58:27,680 --> 00:58:29,640
Speaker 1: I think that wraps up this discussion. I mean, we've

1064
00:58:29,680 --> 00:58:32,400
Speaker 1: seen sort of the past, We've seen how it works.

1065
00:58:32,400 --> 00:58:35,360
Speaker 1: In the future. I'm I'm really excited to see the

1066
00:58:35,400 --> 00:58:38,520
Speaker 1: development of Google Maps and and you know, I'm sure

1067
00:58:38,520 --> 00:58:41,880
Speaker 1: we'll see a lot of discussion and healthy debate in

1068
00:58:41,920 --> 00:58:45,160
Speaker 1: the future as these other features roll out and are

1069
00:58:45,240 --> 00:58:48,920
Speaker 1: integrated and uh and maybe maybe two or three generations

1070
00:58:48,920 --> 00:58:50,480
Speaker 1: from now, people will just be like, Hey, that's just

1071
00:58:50,520 --> 00:58:53,840
Speaker 1: the way things are. We're in this transitional period where

1072
00:58:53,840 --> 00:58:57,880
Speaker 1: it's really kind of weird. So but that's okay, it's exciting. Yeah, yeah,

1073
00:58:58,000 --> 00:59:00,520
Speaker 1: so change it's fun, fun and scary. Ye, fun and scary.

1074
00:59:00,600 --> 00:59:02,960
Speaker 1: That's gonna be my new title. I'm gonna business card.

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00:59:03,000 --> 00:59:04,880
Speaker 1: So while I go and get the printed up I

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00:59:04,960 --> 00:59:07,160
Speaker 1: just want to remind everybody. If you want to get

1077
00:59:07,200 --> 00:59:10,080
Speaker 1: in touch with us, you can do so by sending

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00:59:10,120 --> 00:59:13,560
Speaker 1: us an email our addresses tech stuff at discovery dot com,

1079
00:59:13,880 --> 00:59:16,520
Speaker 1: or drop us a line on Facebook or Twitter. You

1080
00:59:16,560 --> 00:59:19,880
Speaker 1: can find us with the handle text stuff, hs W

1081
00:59:20,160 --> 00:59:22,959
Speaker 1: and Lauren and I will talk to you again really soon.

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00:59:24,360 --> 00:59:26,800
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, is

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00:59:26,840 --> 00:59:32,080
Speaker 1: it house to works dot com