inquisity

Recently I posted on some thoughts I had about a talk David Heinemeier Hansson gave. He talked about the importance of focusing on problems that other people have and providing solutions to those problems.

I just watched a video (skip to 42:45) with Seth Godin from 2006. He gave a talk to some Google employees, and at the end opened it up for questions. Someone who worked on Google Maps asked why they hadn’t been more successful in taking market share from Mapquest. Seth’s answer: “We didn’t have a maps problem.” Just a refresher: Google Maps was revolutionary in that it was the first service to let you drag the map around with your cursor and see satellite footage overlayed with streets). Google Maps was tough to print out, which is what most of us do when we look up directions online. So while people were impressed with the snazzy features, they ultimately used other services like Mapquest once the novelty wore off. Simply put, we didn’t a big enough maps problem.

Now it’s 2008, and I don’t think Google Maps has changed much. I will say that even though Mapquest has its own draggable map with satellite footage, Google Maps has a better interface. I use Google Maps when I want to see the area where my destination is, and Mapquest when I need directions. Of course, with GPS, Mapquest’s days may be numbered.