Microsoft's secret weapon against Google Maps — open source
open source — One of the many areas where Google is far ahead of Microsoft is mapping, with Google Maps by far the dominant map service on the Internet. Microsoft is employing an under-the-radar approach to fighting back …
Context & Ripple Effects
This fight has a long tail in the corpus: Microsoft declared back in October 2005 that it would trounce Google, and by 2008 the framing had flipped into Google holding the secret weapon — with mapping cited as one of the clearest arenas of Google advantage. The Computerworld piece extends that arc by naming Microsoft's countermove: an under-the-radar, open source approach to closing a gap where Google Maps is, per the reporting, by far the dominant consumer map service.
The story travelled unusually widely for a strategy piece — GeekWire, Business Insider, The Next Web and The Verge all picked it up on or about March 27, 2012 — suggesting the press read it as a signal about how the next phase of the mapping contest would be fought rather than a routine product note.
First-order effects
- Microsoft gains a way to compete against Google Maps without matching Google's data-collection spend head-on — open source shifts the battleground from capital-intensive map building to distribution and developer adoption.
Second-order effects
- Google's dominant position now has to be defended on data quality and freshness rather than incumbency alone, since a free, openly licensed alternative lowers the switching cost for developers and site owners who currently default to Google Maps embeds.
Third-order effects
- If open map data keeps improving through shared, community-driven collection, the industry structure could shift from a single dominant proprietary provider toward commoditized base maps where differentiation moves to layers on top — routing, local search, advertising.
The trend: Web mapping is entering a phase where open, collectively maintained map data becomes the lever challengers like Microsoft use to erode a proprietary incumbent's data moat.