I have been noticing a very clear trend of sorts lately when it comes to Google and their famed Maps program. Every week (or maybe biweekly for the sake of fairness), Google has been rolling out massive update after update to Maps that just about makes it an untouchable strength for the search engine. 
Let’s look at the past month or so and see what they have done so far.
- Around the end of September, the first big wave of the Maps update would be the underwater features that were rolled out. This new series of imagery allowed users to take a look at coral reefs off the coast of Australia and elsewhere in a seemingly limitless fashion. This sort of feature permitted a sort of activity that could have seemed imaginable only by actually visiting these areas
- Roughly two weeks later (around October 10/11), Google then announced that they have added a staggering 250,000 miles of Street View to its database. While a good amount of these miles were specific to a select amount of countries, the addition is one that had already made Google Maps a goto tool for anyone looking satisfy their geographic curiosity.
- As if these new additions were not enough, a new announcement has come out this week via several news sources that Google Maps has now added 25 million graphic footprints of buildings into the database. If you look at Google Maps in Map form (not Earth), you may notice that your neighborhood or city now has accurate footprints showing where buildings are located. Many sources have been specific towards certain cities, but I’ve been testing out a random selection of cities, and the new feature looks to be pretty well-covered. Not everything is covered, but it is still an impressive new addition.
Once again, let’s consider how these updates have all happened in roughly a thirty day period. With this is consideration, it might as well be accepted by the others that there is simply no catching up to do. Google Maps already had one big leg up against Apple and Bing with Street View, and the mass amounts of information being held for the most unlikely places in the world.
Google has repeatedly said that the overall goal of Google Maps is to be the most comprehensive map in the world, and I think it might be safe to say that they have already gotten there. Knowing the company, they are certainly far from being finished. But the point is that there is simply no race to run anymore against Google. The features of Google Maps are a result of years and years of development, and guys like Apple are trying to break in at one of the roughest times to ever try. This past month is a testament to the state of Google as compared to others.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Google Maps simply becomes the standard mapping device used by everyone (as if that hasn’t already started happening), while everyone else pretty much disappears. Their backup and strength is at a point where any outside attempt to meet and match is a dire one at best.
A safe bet can be made that they will surprise us with something else within the next seven to ten days once again, although I can’t imagine how they can outdo themselves at this point.
This is a guest post by Josephine Girard. Jospehines is a tech blogger and also provides information about satellite TV in Illinois.