Next Up for Google: The Enterprise

This isn’t really news, but there’s a nice rundown of which consumer “toys” the company may bring to the enterprise in this interview with Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager of Google’s enterprise division at Internet News. On mapping, it’s a Gartner analyst that speaks:

Gartner analyst Whit Andrews said that Google is putting a lot of emphasis on geospatial services for enterprise. “They see a lot of power being available in that product line,” he told internetnews.com.

Mashups with Google Maps is just one example of how Google consumer applications have the potential to drive significant enterprise dollars. Google has even signed service level agreements for enterprise contracts for Google Maps and Google Earth, he said.

OGC’s Raj Singh at Where 2.0 2006

IT Conversations posted a podcast of Raj Singh’s talk from that event title “GeoHacking that Scales.” He begins by noting that probably 90% of attendees don’t know about OGC, and tries to fill the gap. (I consult to OGC.)

Maps, but not Google Maps, Top Japanese Google Search Topics

IDG reports that Google tallied the top searches done its site in Japan. The results, “maps” were the top request. But….

that doesn’t necessarily mean good news for Google Inc.‘s own mapping service. A sample search reveals that rival services from Mapion, MapFan Web, Yahoo Maps and local search engine Goo all ranked above Google Maps in the search results.

- Infoworld

Scientists Love Google Earth

An article titled “Google Earth embraced by geologists”  from the San Jose Mercury is making the rounds on Christmas day. Frank Taylor (Google Earth Blog) is quoted and I found this note interesting:

Some of these features are available now; others are under development at places such as the U.S. Geological Survey, which has been a leader in adopting the virtual globe technology.

Maps by the Blind for the Blind

Rachel Magario, a grudate student at Kansas University, is drawing on her experiences learning her way around campus as a blind student to help others. With a $5000 grant from the school’s Endowment and support from the geography faculty and staff she’s exploring how to create maps of the campus, which does not have square blocks like here native Sao Paulo. Her perception of campus, her mental map, is quite different from the reality. The challenge is how to make the map useful for others, allowing for the fact that they too will have a different mental map.

- Lawrence Journal World (Kansas)