October 31, 2005

Buck up for google mash-ups

Jason Miller recently commented on how wb developers can expect to start sharing the profits as developers continue to launch google mash-ups, particularly for commercial services.. real estate apps are a great case in point. If history holds true, I would have to say that I agree. Remember mom or dad telling you how nothing inn life is free... think about it. Google has provided the free API to developers and they have embraced it.. ofcourse google will likely crank up the cash register once things start getting heated up. Think about google adwords and use this as an example. As a"beta" test so to speak, I've had google adwords and have used the google pay for ads service as well. The trend over the last year has been for google to charge me more to have my little text ad show up on websites and in google search pages and on the flip side, the commission I receive for serving up google adwords on webpages that I maintain has totally tanked. Using pretty much the same parameters, I now receive about .20 cents on the dollar in revenues commpared to 8 months ago, and I'm shelling out 2x or 3x more to have my ads displayed. You think the Map API will remain totally open and free to use.. think again. Developers will enjoy the "open" technology, however, you real estate agents relying on mashups tfor your business, expect the tab to go up.

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