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Web 2.0 - Thursday, April 5, 2007

Google MyMaps Puts The Hurt On Maps Mashups Like Platial

Portland, OR-based Platial recently raised $2.4M in a Series A from Kleiner Perkins, Omidyar Network, Ram Shriram, and Ron Conway. Given that some of these guys invested in Google you might have thought that they would see around the corner to Google's just launched MyMaps. This is the danger of creating a startup based on a set of features that extend another product based on it’s API.

In Europe, another funded Google maps mashup is Plazes, which has raised €2.7M from Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures which invested €2.7m in its first round last February.

Says Mashable: "It’s a shame that Google would launch such a product: startups like Platial and Frappr, not to mention thousands of smaller sites, have built businesses around social maps (provided by Google Maps, Yahoo Maps or both). By providing its own service, Google has instantly killed off at least a few hundred of those mashed-up tools."

There is no comment yet on Platial's blog. Platial says on GigaOm: "We really don´t like to view Plazes as a map mash-up. Plazes bridges your physical presence with your digital identity. It allows you to publish your current geo-presence through different check-in channels like our new SMS service. It is about where you are and where your friends are. Not about POIs plotted on a map. That presence data is presented in many different ways, from the Website on a Google Map to your blog badge or as a text message to your friends."

For Google, this represents a developer relations headache as its launch may cast a chilling effect on developers who thought they could dance with Google and not get elbowed in the face.

Read - Google Launches MyMaps - Platial Gets Screwed (Mashable)
Read - Google MyMaps Smashes Mash-ups (Gigaom)