MapMania

Zenbu got a small plug on Google Maps Mania – the definitive Google Maps blog. Cool

Suit Ratings

Ratings are an obvious and necessary upgrade to the Zenbu system; find a popular local cafe, see what other people say about that dentist. It’s a natural extension of how the real world works, telling friends or strangers about places, products & services you like, or don’t.

I’ve heard of, not one but, two law suits over reviews and ratings in the last 24 hours.

The Australian case revolves around a newspaper restaurant review that goes beyond scathing to defamatory. The American case involves a lawyer rating site (surely that was just asking for trouble) and a black-box rating system that has got lawyers up in arms.

I hope this issue doesn’t become a thorn in the side of (the future) Zenbu ratings.

UPDATE: Today Google launched business reviews on Google Maps… http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/06/add-your-reviews-to-businesses-on.html

Map Advertising

Opening up the Google Maps API put those maps on thousands (millions?) of websites for free. Obviously Google thought they would be able to monetise that eventually but I had struggled to understand how they would do it without being intrusive or ruining many a well designed mashup.

Now I get it. Google has released the Google AJAX Search API – Local Search Control for Google Maps. Now with just a few lines of code you can add the nifty local search functionality to your maps, including ads. Why will people do it? Because by providing your AdSense ID Google will split the advertising revenue with you. They don’t need to serve intrusive ads because people will optionally sign up to receive them. Or at least the developers will sign up to serve them and the user will click that search button…

Lat49 obviously thinks there’s money here too. Very much under wraps at the moment but the idea is an ad network integrated with whatever 3rd party map supplier you may be using (Google, Yahoo, Mapquest, whatever). Interesting and rapidly moving space.

Walkies

Thanks to the information from the Auckland City Council living parks database you can now search for your nearest dog exercise area in Auckland on Zenbu. Or your local park with tennis courts … cool!