The Implications of Google Maps

I have been playing with the new, improved version of Google Maps and I couldn't have been more startled than if I saw Flava Flav and Brigitte Nielsen tongue-kissing. Oh, wait, I did see that last night on TV.

Anyhow, Google Maps has implemented a shockingly good user-interface -- without any use of Java applets, Macromedia Flash, ActiveX or any other thickish plugins. Using only Javascript, DHTML and "RPC's" marshalled on-the-fly via XMLHTTP, the maps are simply an order of magnitude better than the competition.

I certainly wouldn't advocate surrender on anyone's part, but if you're a Mapquest executive, you may want to call up your favorite headhunter and ask about any interesting opportunities.

Aside from the standard sorts of things you might expect in a mapping tool, Google Maps also provides:

Drag-and-drop user interface - explore without waiting for annoying page refreshes, simply move in any direction you want

Integrated, local searching - search for "Atlanta Wifi" or "Duluth Pizza" and get 3D-style indicators pointing to matching landmarks

I got to explore my neighborhood by panning and zooming... and literally found new sidestreets and routes that I otherwise would never have noticed. It is simply that groundbreaking of a user-experience.

Google has, once again, redefined the limits of web applications when it comes to taking advantage of "pure web" technologies: Javascript and DHTML.

As BenjaminM points out:

...this functionality was originally provided through the Microsoft XMLHTTP object from MSXML but Mozilla and Safari have copied it with an XMLHttpRequest object - who said that IE wasn't innovative?

Microsoft has to be both proud and frightened with this turn of events. Google has taken their technologies and used it to mount a formidable threat to the conventional operating system.

The implications for other applications is also, literally, shocking: why can't conventional database applications provide drag-and-drop scrolling through scrolling lists of line-items without having to refresh pages? Why can't new searches be integrated onto a results page with repaints?

Google is transplanting the thick-client, desktop application user experience into the world of web browsers.

A whole host of applications are ready and waiting to be migrated to this "leaps and bounds" better user experience. And Microsoft better start hustling, ASAP, to likewise improve the Windows' user experience in sea-change fashion. Otherwise, the risk exists that the browser will truly supplant the conventional notion of operating system. In which case, very few people will actually need Windows.

A long way off, perhaps, but I'm sure the folks at Redmond are concerned.