Maps, and the Tao of Release 12.0.
by Steve Tsuida, September 15
From Hitwise Intelligence (January 2008):
“A year ago, MapQuest had more than five times (429%) more US visits than Google Maps. Last week, that gap was down to 126%. Google Maps is the #2 Maps website and attracted 22% of visits to Maps websites… Traffic to MapQuest has remained flat year on year and is down 20% in the past 6 months. Google Maps traffic is up 135% year on year and is up 7% in the past 6 months.”
The difference between Mapquest and Google Maps has everything to do with the input Google collected as they imagined release 12.0 of Google Maps, while coding release the alpha release of Google Maps. Mapquest smartly built a product for some of some of us. Google wisely architected a product for all of some of us.
More after the break.
Where does your news come from? Who reaffirms, challenges, reflects, and rejects your ideas? Which people are you surrounded by right now? Yes, you’re surrounded right now, by opinions, advertisements, stories, and beliefs. You’re surrounded by ideas. When those surrounding ideas match your ideas, conflict with your ideas, or don’t have anything to do with your ideas, they shape your ideas. In as far as your ideas shape you, your surroundings—the crowd and the ideas which you’re surrounded by—shape you too.
You’re surrounded by one of three visible groups of people and their ideas (the groups will shift subtly through your day).
Some of Some of Us:
Examples: The New Yorker. National Geographic. Greenpeace. The Fraser Institute. The New England Journal of Medicine. TED Talks. The Jesuits. The View. An angry mob.
Some of All of Us:
Examples: School. USA Today. Mainline faiths. Canada. Sports.
All of Some of Us.
Examples: Cable news. Digg. The Republican Party. Woodstock. A convention. A niche market grocery store. A peaceful demonstration.
Note: The invisible 4th group, All of All of Us. is always on by default.
What this has to do with technology:
Do you remember Mapquest, where All of Most of Us used to go for driving directions? What happened to them? Google Maps happened. It seems as if Mapquest only ever listened to Some of Some of Us—people who wanted directions—then built a great driving directions program, and then stopped. Meanwhile Google listened to All of Some of Us—realtors, GISP’s, hobbyists, broadcasters, designers, and drivers—then went to work on a great mapping platform which also happened to offer driving directions. Google Maps 1.0 was still just a roadmap, but it had an entirely different foundation than the nine-years-old entrenched Mapquest.
Homework for All of Some of Us (Tech People):
Are you Mapquest or Google? For that matter are you WinAmp or iTunes? Filemaker or Oracle? Products ought only to be built for some of us (no more El Caminos!), but they ought to be built for all of some of us. Don’t just think about who’ll use release 1.0, imagine who might use release 12.0? How will your 12.0 users’ needs shape the architecture of 1.0?
Bonus Homework For All of All of Us:
Make a list of the groups that surround you hour by hour, and who they're made up of. Evaluate your surroundings according to what you’re aiming for in life; growth, security, certainty, change, variety, stability… you get the idea. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself unsubscribing to things, re-tuning the radio, book shopping, or just broadening your field of view.
Steve Tsuida is Kryos' Graphic Designer. He has no formal training in marketing, so technically he’s completely full of it. Even so, he’s read a lot of books, and he thinks a lot about this stuff.
