Amazon Continues to Channel the Google

June 8, 2021

In case you have forgotten, Amazon sells online. Over the years, Amazon has gone Googley. First, it was A9 search with views of the street. Then it was product search, a category of some interest to the GOOG. Next was a fling with Twitch and the content creation sector. Then it was online advertising, which caught the attention of the minions of Zuck. Now, armed with smart routing and designs on vehicles, the Bezos bulldozer is scooping maps.

“Amazon Announces a Google Maps Competitor That Uses Esri and HERE Maps” reports:

Amazon has recently announced the general availability of Amazon Location Service, a platform that’s been in preview since December and is a direct competitor to Google Maps Platform.

With Google Maps becoming somewhat difficult to use, Amazon has charted a skirmish or maybe a war with the high school science club infused Mountain View company. The angle for Amazon is the enterprise, but my suspicion is that one of the Amazonians will probe the consumer market. If there’s gold in them thar hills, the adventurous at AWS will head in that direction too. Money trumps marketing in many cases.

The write up says:

Amazon’s purpose was to pack all the necessary solutions into just one product that can provide companies with all the necessary tools they need for location-based applications.

Who loves maps the most? I would suggest public sector entities; for example, enforcement agencies.

What can one do with Amazon maps? Perhaps make the data another component of Amazon’s data services and a snap in for the online bookstore’s artificial intelligence and machine learning components.

With Google struggling in court and arm wrestling with its humanoid resources, Amazon may think the timing is right to put the Bezos bulldozer in gear and try to rework the geo landscape. There is anecdotal information becoming available that smart software may need to be fine tuned but maybe not.

Stephen E Arnold, June 8, 2021

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Amazon, Business strategy, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.