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Comment by magicalist | Hacker News Reader

> When Google first launched Maps it was free and they ran all of the other competition out of business. Now that all their competition are dead they want to charge for it.

Were there any significant competing maps APIs for the web in 2005? There may have been (and you seem so certain I'm sure you could name them all :P), but it's crazy to claim that there aren't far more competitors in the last 5 years than there were back then. Just look at the article, which is literally about all the competition available.

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> Were there any significant competing maps APIs for the web in 2005?

Don't forget about services beyond providing Maps APIs. Google Maps basically killed the need for a standalone GPS purchase (Garmin/TomTom) as well as purchasing upgraded maps for existing GPS systems, including those built into a car.

Am I complaining? No, but Google gave away for free something that once would've been hundreds of dollars in software. I'm surprised TomTom and Garmin weren't put out of business yet from it, but they survived on their niche products.

Everyone is responding about non-APIs. GP was specifically talking about running competitors "out of business" and then raising prices on the maps API. Google Maps itself certainly hasn't become a paid app, so I'm not sure what point folks are trying to make.

Nokia maps was pretty decent. They had acquired Navteq, which had been in the business of mapping for decades. When Google maps just used to have a list of driving instructions, Nokia maps had full turn by turn voice navigation. Of course in this case Google maps didn't drive Nokia out of business, that was totally their own doing and maps was just one collateral damage.

Nokia Maps wasn't collateral damage. It is still very much alive and kicking. Nokia rebranded Nokia Maps as Here and and eventually sold it off. Here is still very much alive. Employees several thousand and is still a major player in the mapping services business.

Certainly in the UK, online maps were dominated by two independent companies - Multimap and Streetmap - which were pretty much wiped out by Google. Multimap sold to Microsoft while Streetmap limps on, its UI barely changed.

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