[MUSIC PLAYING]
LAURENCE MORONEY: So Ken, you were one of the first Maps API
developers out there, right?
So tell us a bit about that.
KEN HOETMER: I suppose I am.
Yeah, that's true.
So I started developing with the original Maps API v1 back
in 2005, which actually only lasted about six months
before the v2 came out.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Why the sudden change?
KEN HOETMER: Why the sudden change?
Well, I think Google wanted to put some more support behind it
I believe is what happened.
But I remember at the time, when I
got started with it, that when you put a marker on a map,
you actually had to specify the longitude
before the latitude in v1.
And then v2 came out shortly after.
And I had to change all of my code to say latitude-longitude.
And it's been latitude-longitude ever since.
But a few old timers may remember the days before.
LAURENCE MORONEY: That's a great example of breaking changes,
right?
KEN HOETMER: Breaking changes, that's right.
That's right.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Now, I know also back then you
worked on this-- it became a pretty famous app
at the time, the Quick Maps?
KEN HOETMER: I suppose at the time.
At the time, I was just kind of an independent developer
working out of a bedroom in Canada.
And I launched an app I called Quick Maps.
And the tagline was, Doodle on Google.
And what it let you do is a bit of a merger
of Microsoft Paint tools-- editing tools-- and Google Maps
API.
And so you could draw on Google Maps and label things
and save your creations and send a link to your friends
or put an iframe on your website.
And it turned out that this became rather popular.
Nothing like this existed at the time.
It reached the front page of Digg and Slashdot.
This was in 2006.
LAURENCE MORONEY: You got Slashdotted?
KEN HOETMER: I got Slashdotted.
And I had been experimenting with Ruby on Rails
at that time, which was also a new technology.
And my server collapsed in a heap at the time on a weekend
when I was away.
And we had to, you know, fight to get it back up.
But yes, my moment of fame.
LAURENCE MORONEY: But now you're here of Google working on Maps.
KEN HOETMER: I am, yes.
So at the time-- I guess that was
2006-- I was invited to interview for an engineering
role at Google, which I failed miserably.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Don't worry, I failed twice.
KEN HOETMER: You failed twice?
LAURENCE MORONEY: If at first you don't succeed, right?
KEN HOETMER: That's right.
Try, try again.
You have second chances.
I'm proof.
I ended up taking a job with Lonely Planet, a travel company
based in Melbourne, Australia, at the time working
on digital maps for them.
And in 2011, I became a Googler.
And I joined the Google team as a product manager, this time.
So if you can't code, you become a product manager.
And I joined the Google Maps team then in Sydney.
And I've been there ever since, as the sandals suggest.
LAURENCE MORONEY: I like it.
You're bringing a bit of Australia with you.
KEN HOETMER: That's right.
That's right.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So you're working on, what is it?
So it's like the services for Maps, that type of thing?
KEN HOETMER: So the Google Maps API
is generally what I work on.
So we have a whole suite of services now
and the Google Maps API is beyond-- the original Google
Maps API was a JavaScript API.
But we've since expanded to Android and iOS
as well as we have a series of HTTP web services
that folks can use to develop across platforms.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Right.
So like what kind of things do these services offer?
KEN HOETMER: So maps, of course, I guess what we're known for.
We're still called the Maps API.
But increasingly as we've moved into an area that is heavily
driven by mobile and by connected devices that
are in the world and know where they are,
the maps are becoming a secondary piece
to what is more primarily location information that
is derived from these devices and making decisions
and building applications and deriving value
from that location information.
So we've had a few launches recently along these lines.
One is Places API.
Places API has been available as a web service
for a number of years.
But last year we launched a native version of Places API
for Android and iOS.
And Places API does a number of things.
But for the mobile use case and the primary use case,
it is, where am I now?
The method is called Get Current Place, which
would seem obvious, right?
Where am I now?
The device can do that.
It has a GPS.
But the GPS returns a number.
And a number doesn't mean anything to a user.
And turning that number into a meaningful label for a user
is actually a very difficult challenge
and requires access to a database of place names
that, you know, not everybody has.
And so we've built that into Places API.
You can use Places API to gain access
to Google's knowledge of places around the world.
LAURENCE MORONEY: And also like when you get the lat-long back
from a GPS-- I mean, it's not pinpoint accurate, right?
And there may be multiple places near you
that you could be in one of those.
KEN HOETMER: That's right.
So Places API uses a combination of both latitude and longitude
as well as actually sensing Wi-Fi signals in the area
to be more accurate, which is why
it's better to use than, say, a reverse geocoding call.
We've also launched a new API called Roads API recently,
as well-- within the last year or so.
What it does is-- anyone who's used, I guess, probably
an older GPS tracking app or has developed with the GPS
on a mobile device knows that, if you attempt to trace
a route, it bounces, right?
LAURENCE MORONEY: Yup.
KEN HOETMER: It bounces all over the place
because, well, it has to go to space
and come back down, right?
LAURENCE MORONEY: Yeah.
KEN HOETMER: This is actually fascinating technology.
But on the way to space and on the way back down,
you get a jitter.
LAURENCE MORONEY: It depends on the weather.
KEN HOETMER: It depends on the weather.
Of course, right?
So what our Roads API does is allows
you to pass in a set of raw GPS lat-longs,
like a raw GPS trace.
And from that we will snap it to the road network
and give you a normalized path as well as an identifier
that you can use to interrogate properties of the road network,
as well.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Interesting.
KEN HOETMER: And a newer feature launched
as well within the last year-- Directions API
web service has been available for quite a number of years.
But what we've launched recently is something
we call predictive travel time.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Ooh.
KEN HOETMER: Yes.
And with predictive travel time, what you can do is,
when you ask for directions between point A and point B,
you can specify either time equals now
or a time equals sometime in the future.
And we will give you an estimate travel time
and actually routes that we have derived
based on our understanding of traffic conditions either now
or what they will be in the future.
And so for folks who are developing applications
around moving objects-- and the sharing economy
is popping up quite a lot of these, Uber
being the classic example-- this is a very useful API
for doing logistics planning, for instance.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So a lot of this,
like, location-based intelligence,
there must be some fun use cases.
There must be some great stuff that people are doing with it.
Can you share any of them?
KEN HOETMER: Yeah.
Well, I mentioned Uber.
Uber is the classic example.
And there are a lot of sort of Uber-like applications
that we're seeing pop up around the world.
One of my favorites is called GO-JEK in Indonesia.
And they are a similar type service
but for motorcycles OK Indonesia.
So you can hail a motorcycle using GO-JEK in Indonesia.
And they're using a number of our services
to decide which motorcycle should come to you.
And so you can see which motorcycle is coming.
LAURENCE MORONEY: And you hop on the back of the motorbike?
You don't drive it yourself?
KEN HOETMER: That's right.
You hop on the back of the motorbike.
And it takes you to where you need to go.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Cool.
KEN HOETMER: So another interesting one,
Dash Labs was our Roads API launch partner.
And they're using Roads API, which
snaps GPS traces to the road network,
to help you with smarter driving.
And there's a very fascinating one
in Sydney around the Directions API feature
I mentioned earlier.
In Sydney, when you're driving down
the motorway-- in a lot of cities, you will see this.
There's a sign on the motorway that says, time to exit 1, 2, 3
is five minutes, for instance, right?
LAURENCE MORONEY: Right.
KEN HOETMER: And in Sydney, this is now not
derived from a sensor on the road that
is tracking car movement across the road
but simply by calling our Directions API for the time
and traffic between the sign and the exit--
LAURENCE MORONEY: Right now.
KEN HOETMER: --right now.
And then they just put them straight on the sign.
And they've done some tests before they
launched this feature and proved that, actually, our Directions
API is as accurate as the sensors on the road.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Wow.
KEN HOETMER: Yeah.
The city of Sydney is very excited about this
because the cost savings.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Yeah.
I mean, the cost of like putting and maintaining
those sensors on the road.
And now what?
The sign itself just calls an API?
KEN HOETMER: That's right.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Wow.
That's really cool.
So all of this stuff is available to developers?
KEN HOETMER: Yes, developers.google.com/maps.
LAURENCE MORONEY: Easy to remember.
KEN HOETMER: Easy to remember.
And just pick your platform that you're developing for.
All of our APIs are free to try, in some cases completely
free depending on your use cases or with what
we feel are moderate charges for usage above the limits
should you need it.
LAURENCE MORONEY: OK, sounds good.
So developers.google.com/maps?
KEN HOETMER: That's right.
LAURENCE MORONEY: All right.
Well, thanks, Ken.
And thanks, everybody.
If you have any questions for me or if you
have any questions for Ken, just please leave them
in the comments below.
And we'll get to them.
And don't forget to subscribe to the Google Developers channel.