Google Maps wasn't the first tiled draggable online map. That honor belongs to Bernhard Seefeld and map.search.ch, launched in October 2004:
I'm afraid I don't agree with your use of the term "innovative". Regarding Gmail, I'd rather say they managed to clone mutt+procmail for the web in a reasonable manner.
Regarding Maps, the fundamental operations had been in place since at least 2002 at e.g. http://www.nl.map24.com/. Actually I haven't been there for quite some time, and I think in 2002 their interface was actually better than now.
Re:Google Buzz
by nostrademons on Tuesday February 09, 2010 @07:34PM
(#1113830)
We'll just have to agree to disagree then, because I don't see how anyone could look at mutt+procmail vs. GMail and say GMail wasn't innovative, or at nl.map24.com and say GMaps wasn't innovative. Both of those seem ridiculously hard to use by today's standards.
Similarly, Maps was fundamentally innovative. If you went to GMaps c. 2005 and then went to MapQuest, there was absolutely no comparison. I kept wanting to drag the map around to see what was just offscreen. And then Maps kept innovating with satellite imagery, and Street View, and local business labels on the satellite imagery, and double-click-to-find-the-best-vantage-point.
Then there are a bunch of me-too products that succeed only because its Google and everyone already uses them.
Unfortunately this includes everything I've done at Google, but I'm hoping they've set things up for future innovation. Real innovation takes time, usually 3-4 years. Google's strength has been that they're willing to devote that time, but you can't have every single product out the door be a hit.