Google is retiring its geo-products — Google Earth Enterprise, Google Maps Engine and Google Maps Coordinate. But why did Google make this move? Who will be affected and what are the options available for its customers? Geospatial World explores…
On February 8, 2015, Google Maps turned 10! On that day, it promised to “navigate uncharted territory, together with its users, in the next 10 years in pursuit of the perfect map”. Only a few days before, enterprise users who anticipated some wonderful product updates on this occasion, realised that they had to actually chart out unanticipated courses moving forward.
From its launch in 2005, to the acquisition of Skybox Imaging in August 2014, to its more recent content update with 45-degree imagery of about 120 cities across the world — it looked as though Google with its map products was on the perfect road of product improvisation until an email announcing its deprecation in January 2016 landed in the mail boxes of its users.
