Google Pulls Back the Curtain on its Secretive Maps Program

Alexis C. Madrigal get exclusive access to "Ground Truth," Google's project to develop the most accurate maps in the world. But why is the master of the virtual world so intent on documenting the physical world?

2 minute read

September 7, 2012, 12:00 PM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


As Madrigal explains, Google's commitment to documenting the physical world serves two purposes. First, it fits within the company's core mission to organize all the world's information. "'If you look at the offline world, the real world in which we live, that
information is not entirely online,' Manik Gupta, the senior product
manager for Google Maps, told [Madrigal]. 'Increasingly as we go about our
lives, we are trying to bridge that gap between what we see in the real
world and [the online world], and Maps really plays that part.'"

The last item mentioned by Gupta plays into the project's second purpose: to compete with Apple over who will control the future of mobile phones. "If you're at all like
me," says Madrigal, "you use mapping more than any other application except for the
communications suite (phone, email, social networks, and text
messaging)...Whereas Apple's strengths are in product design, supply chain
management, and retail marketing, Google's most obvious realm of
competitive advantage is in information. Geo data -- and the apps built
to use it -- are where Google can win just by being Google."

What follows in the article is a fascinating peek inside the process to collect, engineer, and make operative the complex set of information hidden behind every Google Map. 

"As we slip and slide into a world where our augmented reality is
increasingly visible to us off and online, Google's geographic data may
become its most valuable asset," concludes Madrigal. "Not solely because of this data alone,
but because location data makes everything else Google does and knows
more valuable."

"Or as my friend and sci-fi novelist
Robin Sloan put it to me, 'I maintain that this is Google's core asset.
In 50 years, Google will be the self-driving car company (powered by
this deep map of the world) and, oh, P.S. they still have a search
engine somewhere.'"

 

Thursday, September 6, 2012 in The Atlantic

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Wastewater pouring out from a pipe.

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage

Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

April 13, 2025 - Inside Climate News

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

April 23, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Black and white photos of camp made up of small 'earthquake shacks' in Dolores Park in 1906 after the San Francisco earthquake.

The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees

More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

April 15, 2025 - Charles F. Bloszies

Looking out at trees on 4th Street in downtown Los Angeles, California.

LA’s Tree Emergency Goes Beyond Vandalism

After a vandal destroyed dozens of downtown LA trees, Mayor Karen Bass vowed to replace them. Days later, she slashed the city’s tree budget.

April 23 - Torched

White and blue Sacramento regional transit bus with one bike on front bike rack.

Sacramento Leads Nation With Bus-Mounted Bike Lane Enforcement Cameras

The city is the first to use its bus-mounted traffic enforcement system to cite drivers who park or drive in bike lanes.

April 23 - Streetsblog California

View of downtown Seattle with Space Needle and mountains in background

Seattle Voters Approve Social Housing Referendum

Voters approved a corporate tax to fund the city’s housing authority despite an opposition campaign funded by Amazon and Microsoft.

April 23 - Next City