ALL Local Guides share this one thing in common without exception. What is it? Google Maps of course.
But have you ever wondered how it all began? And also where it all began?
Well, how many of you mentioned an Australian connection? Yup, we Aussies are quite a creative lot. (Did you know that we also invented multi focal contact lenses, plastic spectacles, casks for cask wine, flu vaccine, spray on skin, cochlea implant, WiFi, dual flush toilet, the refrigerator, splayd and the black box flight recorder among other things?)
In fact, I can share with you that when I was perusing a list of 60 Aussie inventions, I was very surprised to see Google Maps listed on it.
There were four founders of this invention: Australian software engineer Noel Gordon, Australian Stephen Ma and Danish-born brothers, Lars and Jens Rasmussen. They were the founders of a company called Where 2 and they had a software that had the potential to change how the world navigated.
At that time, their office was “literally the spare bedroom in Gordon’s rented apartment in Hunters Hill, a riverside suburb in Sydney, Australia”. (The Untold Story About the Founding of Google Maps)
After negotiations with Larry Page, in the latter half of 2004, they struck a deal with Google and they became Google’s second acquisition. That same month, these four founders became Nooglers - new recruits of Google.
Less than six months later, the C++ program created by Where 2, went from a desktop application to a web application. This was made possible after Google had also acquired a “geospatial data visualization company and a realtime traffic analyser” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Maps).
Google Maps was launched in February 2005 and three years later in September 2008, Google Maps for Android and IOS devices became available.
So next time you use Google Maps, remember, Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!
Maria Ngo
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