At the recent trendy Where 2.0 conference, Google and Microsoft announced new capabilities for their online mapping services, focused on three-dimensional photographic views of a few large U.S. cities. And Google just announced it would acquire Panoramio for linking photos to the geographic location at which they were taken. While interesting to look at, the value in this set of advancements remains entirely unclear. Consumer curiosity is high, but this will wear thin unless there are applications for these interesting capabilities. Like Henry Blodget at Seeking Alpha, I wonder where the money is in this.

For businesses, the value is even more fleeting. Most businesses fail to adequately take advantage of, let alone monetize maps and other geographic information. Putting more such information, however sexy, at their fingertips will likely do little to change business use.

There are certainly great applications of 3D views: emergency management, taxation, and dealing with crimes. Companies such as Pictometry not only feed the big boys many of the oblique imagery we all see, they provide real-world applications for viewing and measuring buildings for a variety of purposes. Geotagging photos is used mostly for travel/tourism (see the previouse post about MapWing) and could have business applicability, for real estate, criminal investigations, and other applications. The value is in the applications of the imagery, not the imagery itself. How long Google and Microsoft will continue to open their wallets to feed their online mapping solutions remains to be seen, but at some point someone will want to see revenues tied to these visual indulgences.