Ask HN: Why did Google leave the GIS space?

1 points by probablypat 4y ago ↗ HN

I work as a devops guy new to the GIS space. I keep hearing how the current giant ESRI was worried about google entering the market with a GIS tool (like a professional google earth), but they never did.

I know they have the locations API, but they don't have a tool like qGIS or ArcGIS.

Does anyone have any insight as to why they didn't pursue entering the market?

2 comments

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newbamboo 4y ago ↗

This is news to me. As recently as 2020 they seemed to be investing in geo. Not desktop projects but they are more of a cloud company.

“GEO and Google Earth Engine announce funding for 32 projects to improve our planet” (July 2020) https://earthobservations.org/article.php?id=447

twobitshifter 4y ago ↗

There is a Google earth pro but they made it free. I believe they still have many people active in the GIS space developing products. For example they have a Google earth studio, which is an animation tool. https://www.google.com/earth/studio/

Earth engine competes with esri datasets https://earthengine.google.com/