Re: Google modules integration

[Richard Stallman]

    Yes, the user must provide enough data to
    retrieve the map information - but then 
    users also provide a specification of how
    to transform that data into a customized
    presentation.   For example, if I want a
    map with a pointer to my house, the 
    block I live on highlighted, and, say,
    a route marked to the nearest park, all of those
    graphical transformations of the map data
    are done by Google.

This transformation of the data starts to become SaaS, though I doubt
whether it amounts to a significant extent.  It also starts to give
Google more information about your interests.  That is why I don't
specify particular addresses when I use Google Maps, which is why I
did not think of that aspect when we started discussing this.  I just
thought in terms of browsing through maps.

It would be better for the user's client program to get the street data
for the relevant area, and to find specific places and routes locally.

Does Google Maps offer any way to do that?  I gather it does not.

Anyway, we could distinguish different ways of Google Maps: to browse
maps, to specify particular display, to find an address, and to
calculate a route.  We could support some of them and not others.  The
first three are not SaaS, but the last is mildly SaaS.