It will be interesting to see how this evolves with next gen browsers supporting 3D natively.
John.

Nick @23: That’s a bit like saying NavTeq and TeleAtlas created Google Maps, or satellite imaging companies created Google Earth. The data didn’t make the engine. VisionMedia provided us with invaluable polygon data, but I only wish that was enough!

We developed new compression technologies to clean those polygons and transfer them to browsers, and built a browser-based 3D renderer with support for hardware acceleration. For the mapping part, we worked on spatial matching algorithms to get per-building detail. And then there was the whole web layer. Not a matter of plug-and-play, but it was a good time and there’s a lot we still want to do going forward!

Raj Advani
UpNext

But the real story here is VisionMedia - the little bootstrapping startup merely found their product and ran with it. The whole enterprise wouldn’t be possible without VisionMedia, who are the real innovators here. Upnext mashed it all up with other data, which is of course great, but not that profound.

Maybe telling people what you actually do is Web 0.5 or something, but I think Multimap, Streetmap and Google Maps have an advantage over this lot because if someone says ‘You should try Google Maps’, I instantly know what they do.

Congrats on all your success!

Social Alarm Clock guy

From http://www.techcrunch.com/2007.....-facebook/ When it comes to online maps, there is a gap between the 2-D maps and pictures you see on Google Maps, Live Maps, and Yahoo Maps, and the more fully-immersive, fly-thro…

I’ve been waiting for technology like this to implement an idea I’ve been sitting on for a few years.

A really amazing browser experience. Can be used for so much more than showing classifieds. So much more.

Well done Raj, Vik, Robin & Danny. And good luck.

Let me know if you ever want to licence the technology

i love how the lights go out when you are looking up nightclubs.

Ooohhhhh, good rule! I won’ts ever do its agains sir.

general rule of thumb, don’t posts twice - unless someone calls you out.

Microsoft stuff sucks. Everybody knows that. Whatever they make doesn’t count.

but i’d have to agree with most comments…
the visuals are cool, but the usefulness is in question.

I agree it’s wicked - I could see it working with a Yelp as well. On CN a few of the comments were around the initial load time and the Java map.

The key is getting people off Yelp and other review sites and onto UpNext.

You are right though, Erick, it is a perfect buyout candidate for someone that doesn’t need it to generate revenue on its own (aka Google).

pretty sure the starbucks’s whole store siting premise is that you don’t need a map to find one because they are everywhere - starbucks across the street, but you’re going to the grocery store? no matter, there’s an in-store starbucks, too!

yes, way cool maps, though!