CNN.com – Google tinkerers make data come alive – Jun 9, 2005
Love it. Love it. Love it.
Google is a company that is getting hit left and right with accolades and bronx cheers. Innovation is one of the thing they do REAL well.
They create google maps.
They put it out there (leaving some of the doors open).
And they watch what their users do with it.
This is another killer example of user generated content/media hacking/audience participation. Google saw a way to provide a service (maps) users would like. Instead of locking the doors and keeping the users from ‘playing in the sandbox’, Google opened it up. Gave users a platform to… do anything their imaginations can come up with.
Violate the EULA? YES. Fun for the mediahackers tweakin and changing and using googlemaps to do things the devs couldnt imagine? YES.
Fun for the users? YES YES YES YES YES