Apparently it’s not enough to be the platform for maps mashups. Now Google wants in on the action.

Simple map-making is now built into their local search interface. My initial reaction, like with Google Base (the classifieds-and-more tool), is that Google should stay out of content creation, even if it’s user-generated. They’re really good at searching other people’s content, so why not stick to that? If Microsoft had kept it to Operating Systems, they might have made them better.

Focus is tough, no matter who you are. I’m not very good at it, and yet it’s my favorite chapter in the Immutable Laws.

One could easily argue that content-creation is right in line with organizing the world’s information, which is Google’s lofty goal. If something is in my head, it isn’t search-able by The Goog (yet!). So, they provide everyone a way to get that information out. There’s already plenty of stuff on the web and more is being added every day. I’d like to see them focus on organizing that.

I’m hoping for a post on Portland-based Platial’s blog. They do a lot of the same stuff as My Maps. They did comment here (seventh from the top):

We actually knew last week that this was coming–we were never naive enough to think Google wouldn’t identify some part of the giant mash-up space for themselves.

We’ve gone beyond mash-up into a space where real differentiation now takes place among mapping offerings. Google has disrupted our businesses this morning BUT haven’t touched what we consider to be our main use case, target or any of that…yet.

Dan Gilmour says Platial is better for a couple reasons. Those sorts of differentiation will become especially important for businesses built off of another’s API. In the end, this will probably not change much. That tends to be how the Google products go, but it can’t help but rock the boat when the 150 billion dollar gorilla makes an announcement like this.

Update: Platial has update their blog with some good thoughts.

Firefox is a web browser that makes it really easy to surf the web the way you want. It has all the right features. Tonight (Apr. 4) a Portland-based Firefox programmer will be talking about Firefox 3 at the Portland Web Innovators meeting. In Portland? You should come.

In the book Founders at Work, Jessica Livingston interviewed one of the creators of Firefox, Blake Ross.

Livingston: Do you remember people’s reactions when you gave an early demo of it?

Ross: People loved the simplicity and went crazy over tabbed browsing.

That was pretty much my initial reaction, too. In time, I came to love the quick searches and lately am enamored with the session restore.

For a browser that apparently has less than 15% market share, it sure has an outrageously passionate few.

But I see no reason why its simplicity doesn’t appeal to the masses. Maybe they haven’t seen it yet. I think those that have might have a reaction like this commenter on Blake Ross’ blog:

I am a 40 something school teacher with basic computing skills. I downloaded firefox last week and love it. It works for me. It’s quick and easy to use.

Do you still use Internet Explorer? Why?

If your site counts on contributions from visitors, you need to make it easy. Someone participating in discussion or adding their expertise is your equivalent of getting paid. If you’re looking to sell something, you’d want to make it easy to get paid, so of course you’d want to make it easy for someone to share.

My friends at Needmore have a great nugget in their Gone Raw newsletter about how simplicity has been important for the site’s success.

We were thrilled that many of you mentioned the versatility and simplicity of Gone Raw. Not only because it’s what we strive for as web designers, but because if Gone Raw is easy to use, more people will contribute!

Indeed, simplicity was there from the beginning. When the site debuted, I wrote about how it represented the recipe for a kickin’ project.