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Precise directions to the shop that Google killed

Daniel Piotrowski

by Daniel Piotrowski

22 Mar 05:45am

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Filed under: Business, Google, Jobs, Maps, Small Business, Technology

48 comments

A world map depicting what the Earth would look like upside down leans against the front door of Mapworld’s temporary digs in Henry Deane Plaza in Sydney.

A good metaphor

Appropriate, because the world of selling maps has been completely turned on its head in the past decade. The market for map purchases has shrunk dramatically thanks to new technologies like Google Maps and your GPS.

Inside, the store is buzzing. Senior map consultant Izzy Perko barely has the time to stop and chat as he flits amongst shelves packed with maps of Hill End and Hamburg to check on customers. He suggests to one that they’re really looking for a more detailed map than what they’ve chosen. He’ll be with the woman looking for maps of walking trails in the Blue Mountains in a moment. Not too many moments though, because he and three of his colleagues will be unemployed come Saturday.

It’s a real pity, because technology can’t do what they do. Izzy’s job doesn’t just involve pushing buttons on a cash register. The staff possess a mix of customer service, cartography and travel advice-dispensing skills that you can’t get from many other places.

Map customers often need a human guide, and Izzy is brimming with knowledge that comes from experience exploring New South Wales and the world.

Why? Well, for instance, many tourists visit the store. Most have a poor sense of the scale of Sydney and many are astonished the city consists of thousands of suburbs. Some think Sydney is New South Wales when they ask for a map and get confused when they’re presented with a map that includes Broken Hill, in the state’s far west, but not Burwood, in the capital’s inner-west.

People need different levels of detail for different maps. And Izzy says: “You can’t get that from Google Maps”. You can get it from someone like Izzy though, or one his colleagues who know Australian bushwalking trails like the back of their hand.

Izzy gives the example of a group of surfers from the Sutherland Shire in Sydney’s south looking for maps to find wave breaks in Indonesia. Your GPS can’t tell you where to find that. Google can’t tell you the best place to go rockclimbing in the Corryong-Thredbo area.

And while you may have the luxury of not having to fold up (or battle to fold up) your iPhone like you do a map, some people just like having the physical presence of a map on them. A lot of Mapworld’s foot traffic have more wrinkled hands that prefer to hold a real, creased-up map. It’s the same kind of thing as whether pressing a button on an eBook can really compare with wearing down the pages of a classic novel.

Despite losing his job, Izzy is an optimist when it comes to technology and the future of the map industry.

And why wouldn’t he be? While technologies like Google Maps may be linked to making his job irrelevant, Google Maps started in Sydney - and made many new jobs here. And satellite mapping technology has allowed many more people access to information. 

“It can only get better,” he says. He reckons technology like fold-up LCD screens where you can hold a map in front of you are coming sooner rather than later. You’d be able to interact with custom-made maps - adding your own perspectives for future map-users - and vary their level of detail.

The Sydney CBD Mapworld closes for the last time on Saturday. The business is shifting towards an online model, although there’s still a store in Perth.

“There’ll always be maps in some shape or form,” Izzy told The Punch yesterday.

Sometimes, though, the best compass is a human one.

Most commented

48 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • SteveKAG says:

      04:56am | 22/03/12

      Google and Apple have killed off more businesses and/or industries that we can poke a stick at….....

      Whilst these major cmopanies do get richer the middle business owner struggles.  One wonders what our world will look like in another decade.

      No use blaming the two companies, we as consumers want it all, all they are doing is providing it all.

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      06:33am | 22/03/12

      What about all the music artists who, just to become famous, have uploaded their artistry to Youtube and risked people having a sneak preview ?
      And all the entreprenuers who have set up lucrative web based businesses on a shoestring ?

    • M says:

      07:53am | 22/03/12

      Yes, how dare modern tech giants innovate and make old technology redundant. Capitalism is such a nasty system isn’t it?

      Better sign up for the luddite union Steve.

    • Alter ego says:

      11:07am | 22/03/12

      Your great-great granddaddy protested against the steam engine too, didn’t he

    • Lucy says:

      06:06am | 22/03/12

      Mapworld in crows nest closed a few years ago - I was devestated!
      I loved going in and poring over my next holiday destination, the staff gave great advice on which book, which map and spmetimes where to go.
      I loved it and miss it, Good luck to all ghe staff.

      Reply

    • Gregg says:

      07:20am | 22/03/12

      Daniel, aren’t you just a little young to be showing your age!
      Crikey mate, Mapworld ain;t the only place to get a map, many actually being free and that’s not off the net and as for travel related info, you need to get out there into the backpacking world and yes you’ll still find lots of people with limited knowledge but also heaps of sources for both hard copy and internet info.

      Reply

    • centurion48 says:

      07:42am | 22/03/12

      Good luck to the people who want to explore remote areas using Google Maps as their source. Perhaps Daniel could have been less specific because it is not only Google that produce electronic maps, including topographic maps.
      There is still a place for map and compass but if I need to navigate around a city then electronic is better than a paper map. If I am going to bet my life on navigation then I will have paper map, compass and electronic - and be well versed in how to use each of them (unlike James May in ManLab).

      Reply

    • Erm... yes it can says:

      08:08am | 22/03/12

      “Google can’t tell you the best place to go rockclimbing in the Corryong-Thredbo area.”

      You can download KML files for Google Earth (Google Maps on steroids) with all sorts of information.

      Reply

    • John from Vaucluse says:

      08:32am | 22/03/12

      Map World in Pitt St was my favourite haunt. The staff were always hovering around offering assistance or just letting you browse - or dream in my case.
      Good luck to Izzy and all the staff - I will miss you.

      Reply

    • Joel B1 says:

      08:48am | 22/03/12

      I’ve spent about $800 on maps in the last year.

      One of those was on paper.

      As for local knowledge. You can get it on the internet.

      For example down here in Hobart we have several “Quoins”. So how the heck do you find out about them? Can you go there, how to get there etc.

      Easy as. Look up rock-climbing in Tassie. Embedded google maps and details on who owns its, how to get there and the rest.

      The thriving map shop down in Hobart caters for tourists. Maybe your Sydney shop should go with the money?

      Reply

    • iansand says:

      08:54am | 22/03/12

      An online map cannot hold the interest like a paper map unfolded across a table, whether you are planning a walk on a 1:25,000 topo or a road trip across half USA on a 1:1,000,000.  And online you cannot unfold a map before you buy to see what it actually depicts.  Unfolding is vital for city maps.

      I have bought quite a few maps from them over the years.  I will miss them

      Reply

    • SteveKAG says:

      09:45am | 22/03/12

      Yes and you can’t roll paper into a computer like the good ol’ old typewriter…......the dang electronic things will never take off….....

      Try using your ipad (that’s the thing that is bigger than the iphone but looks the same) on google maps, or google earth, plug it in to a projector on to your wall.  You and your mates can stand around drinking your Merlot looking at your High definition wall.  Pinch the screen and you go from 1:25,000 Topograph to a 1:1,000,000 street view with places of interest…...you can then plot this out with toilet stops, cmping spots.  Put your blue tooth head set in on your motor bike helmet, listen to strauss and the american Tom Tom voice giving you directions to the Grand Canyon without the ipad unfolding in your face.

    • Confused Fuddy Duddy says:

      10:09am | 22/03/12

      Absolutely right Steve

      Just as long as you don’t lose power.

    • iansand says:

      10:21am | 22/03/12

      When an ipad screen is as big as a table top, but can fold into something that will fit in a daypack, you may have a point.  Or an ipad with a battery life of 22 days (the longest period I, personally, have been away from civilisation relying on maps).  Or even those multiple occasions when I was out there for 10 days.  Or one that can survive falling off a small cliff or into a river and have all its data intact.

      Paper maps have their place, as do satnavs and google maps (although I used Mapquest and my TomTom to find the Grand Canyon - it’s pretty hard to miss).

    • SteveKAG says:

      12:49pm | 22/03/12

      solar powered battery rechargers and hand winding battery rechargers,, no problem.  Your map would not sruvive the fall etiher it would get washed away in the river.

      I take your point and i do love paper maps but you will find that now we will only be able to get them from one shop in Australia now, probably online purchased through our iPads.

    • iansand says:

      01:29pm | 22/03/12

      You left out the team of sherpas to carry it all.

    • Mark G says:

      09:01am | 22/03/12

      Upside down maps are actually a very interesting concept particularly if you live in the southern hemisphere. There is no natural reason why North (or rather the direction we call north) needs to be up on a map. This is totally a human convention mostly defined that way because when the first attempts at world maps came out, the colonial powers had control of those conventions and all lived in the northern hemisphere. The only natural things we use to align direction on are the earth’s magnetic field and its axis of rotation. This orientates the North/south axis but nothing actually says that the North Pole has to be on top. In 3D space there is no real up and down unless you define it by convention.

      Reply

    • ace leo ace says:

      09:04am | 22/03/12

      I have only been to Sydney once in the last 10 years and one of the highlights of the trip was a visit to Mapworld where I bought one of my most prized possessions, an oversized political world map, I spent alot of time building my own custom cor-board frame for it and it hangs proudly in my house. I still use it all the time, even though I have all the technology available there is nothing quite like standing in front of a full sized map and pondering all those little corners of the world. The internet maps are all abuo searching and getting directions, which of course has its place, but the physical map is unbeaten in its ability to give one a sense of discovery. For all of the documentaries that I have watched and the net searches that I have conducted this humble piece of laminated paper has still taught me most of what I know about geography.

      Reply

    • Phil says:

      09:21am | 22/03/12

      This is hardly the first and wont be the last business Google put out of business.
      While Google Earth and Maps have made life easier and made travel easier for the majority.
      Sad to see Map World go, I use to stop in at the Crows Nest store for things.

      The biggest problem with Google is that they are constantly taking over as many different services as possible and then giving them away for free as they (Google) are bank rolled by their advertising revenue, they then advertise and track you gathering as much data on you and your habits as possible.
      They couldn’t survive offering the services they do for free if it wasn’t for this.

      Google have their fingers in too many pies to be good for anyone, what happens we so many of these companies who specialise (yes not just have an attempt at but were built around one field such as maps both paper and digital) are gone because they cant compete with “FREE” as that’s not a business model?

      The other problem with this is people are being conditioned to believe everything should be or can be offered for free, its not the case. If something is free chances are you are the product.

      Being in the map industry myself have seen many changes and places go under and struggle to compete, they have made in roads to travel now too so trying to bypass travel agents or other booking sites.
      Google is to big not to be concerned about.

      Reply

    • PsychoHyena says:

      08:01am | 23/03/12

      @Phil, so you feel sorry for those who lost their jobs due to the internal combustion engine? What about coal-shovellers who lost their jobs once ships et al were all converted from steam to nuclear?

      Now let’s look at the flip-side. While many are losing their jobs to innovation, many more jobs are being created in other industries because of the innovation. So mining is all you and your family know? So what, go get training in another field, it sucks sure, but what else are you going to do? Mope around bemoaning the fact that your skills to remove precious rock from the ground are now irrelevant?

      There will always be jobs for cartographers, regardless of how advanced technology gets, you will always need someone to provide appropriate maps, the job won’t go but the description will change.

    • Lois Hanna-Myers says:

      12:41pm | 25/03/12

      It will be very interesting when/if Google starts charging for its service!
      As I see it everyone wants something for nothing these days including access to mapping very sad.

    • Karly says:

      08:33am | 11/04/12

      In the map industry? I thought you may have been an English Prof. given your penchant for pointing out spelling, grammatical or small language errors. It’s so hard being perfect… Uh oh! Noticed you’ve made a mistake yourself - tsk, tsk.

    • RED says:

      09:25am | 22/03/12

      I have a wall sized map of the world at home, sometimes I just stare at it. My mates came over and I found them doing exactly the same thing. I think it’s the tangible aspect which makes it more real than online.

      Reply

    • subotic says:

      09:27am | 22/03/12

      Maps and books are useless!

      I only ever read one book, “To Kill A Mockingbird”, and it gave me absolutely no insight on how to kill mockingbirds! Sure it taught me not to judge a man by the color of his skin, but what good does *that* do me?

      Reply

    • Roxs says:

      10:20am | 22/03/12

      is that you Homer Simpson?

    • Bill says:

      09:28am | 22/03/12

      Don’t forget that there is still Mapworks in North Essendon and the Melbourne Map Centre in East Malvern. I’ve been to both and they each have a huge range of maps covering Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and other countries too.

      Reply

    • Laura says:

      09:39am | 22/03/12

      I am a Geomatician (Bachelor of Geomatics) which is the fancy new word for cartography and all things both geographical and mathematical. While I love looking at old topographical maps just like I love looking at all books, technology allows us to do so much more.

      Previously to present different data for a feature visually on a map you would have to label it or thematically map it and display what the colour and symbol means in the legend. You may have to have multiple maps to display all the info for the one feature (ie planning schemes, valuation, services etc for the same property) but with geographical information systems (GIS) all you have to do is click on the feature and you can get everything in an easy to see format.

      This is great for everyday use, but when you want to put forward a report or a plan you still do the old fashioned map as it gives you a snapshot of what it is like at a certain point of time.

      If google hadn’t developed google maps, someone else would of, it is a huge industry. I still believe paper maps will not die though, just as kindle won’t kill all paper books, they will just become rarer and more beautiful.

      Reply

    • sodapoppy says:

      01:48pm | 22/03/12

      A Bachelor Of Geomatics saying “someone else would of” ???Heavens to Betsy!

    • Seth Brundle says:

      02:44pm | 22/03/12

      I bet Laura’s grammar is better than your knowledge of Geomatics…

    • Laura says:

      04:38pm | 22/03/12

      I think you may have mistaken a Bachelor of Geomatics with a Bachelor of Arts. Generally we are good at maths and don’t give a fig about grammer.

    • Phil says:

      11:11am | 24/03/12

      Laura, it’s not about grammAr, it’s about a basic understanding of the English language - “someone else would of”? “Would of” makes absolutely no sense a all. It’s would’ve, an abbreviation of would have.

    • Izzy Perko says:

      11:02am | 22/03/12

      Wow Geomatician ! That’s a great new term. I’m hugely interested in borders and frontiers, doesn’t seem to have any official term for it,  it’s so specialised and weird,  so I’ve made one up; I call myself a “GRENZOLOGIST”,  from the German word “grenze” for frontier.

      Laura , you are absolutely right in everything you say; I just love Google maps, on my iPad, I can look in great detail at the North / South Korean border for hours even though it has destroyed my shop, the above mentioned Mapworld.  But so many who have come into Mapworld,  they do have the very aged hands as Dan so elegantly put it in his article, and their minds can’t cope with the digital technology. I know ‘cause I have shown these customers how to do it but, for various reasons, they can only cope with a paper map.

      Reply

    • Seth Brundle says:

      02:47pm | 22/03/12

      Wow, the owner of a map store who has never heard of the term “Geomatics”.  It has been in use since the 60’s.  Maybe Google isn’t the reason your store is going under…?

    • Sam says:

      11:27am | 22/03/12

      the truth is its now a niche industry, and will have to adapt to being as such. A CBD store simply isnt whats required, theres nothing stopping them going online out of a warehouse, as theres still obviously a demand for physical maps, just not your everyday joe like before

      Reply

    • dancan says:

      11:34am | 22/03/12

      The world changes. 

      Instead of driving to the shops, finding the map store, sifting through maps and then asking questions to the people behind the counter who may or may not know what you’re talking about.  Now you google search the map/area you want, download the electronic or have the physical version mailed directly to your house, then you google bush walking forums join up and ask all your questions, plot all this information on your map and off you go

      Same outcome, different way of getting there.

      Reply

    • Izzy Perko says:

      11:53am | 22/03/12

      Sam , you don’t live in the real world. The elderly Spanish lady looking for the Blue Mountains under the Barrier Reef,  or the young Italian backpackers not knowing that a red line on a map represents a highway;  the old fashioned Englishman looking for a map of “Ayers Rock”, not realising it has been called Uluru now for the last twenty years; the middle aged Anglo-Australian business man who wanted a map of the Ivory Coast (now called and filed under Cote d"Ivorie) all need human help.  The uni student who didn’t know there was two separate countries (and two very different maps) of “Congo” . Or the map of Vancouver someone had in their hand was actually Vancouver, Washington State, USA not Vancouver, BC, Canada.  All these customers came into my shop in the last few weeks, and all walked out with the right map !

      Reply

    • Young traveler says:

      11:34pm | 22/03/12

      Well said Izzy. Although I am not one of the more elderly folk mentioned previously, nothing beats having an informative face-to-face. In your case, what may take 30 minutes of internet searching could be answered in mere moments and that is something very hard to be replicated via technology.

      Best wishes in your future ventures.

    • Sam says:

      12:36pm | 23/03/12

      wow, google is unable to distinguish between the Blue Mountains and the Great barrier Reef? Real world indeed!

    • Craig says:

      08:51am | 24/03/12

      Sounds like all these people needed customer support. A physical map was just the output used to achieve the outcome required.

      All of these people would have received the same outcome online or via a tourism information centre.

      Izzy I admire your passion, however you need a new USP.

      Maps are not going away, we have more of them than ever before in history, they are simply in a different, and by people voting with their feet, more useful format.

      The value you offer is not necessarily the physical output, it is your expertise, knowledge and customer service.

      Now the distraction of your shop has gone you can focus on your real talent - navigation.

      With so many maps and so much information available, people who can get you from A to B successfully are highly important!

    • Phil says:

      11:17am | 24/03/12

      Izzy, I’d suggest those few people who don’t know that Ayers Rock is now Uluru, or Ivory Coast is now Côte d’Ivoire (notice the correct spelling? you lose serious credibility as a map expert with those types of errors!) would still have no trouble finding their way to their respective destinations using the old names. And I’m sure that they’d find out the updated terms along the way too. As they switch to using Google Maps that’ll help educate them anyway!

    • D says:

      08:15am | 27/03/12

      Type in Ayers Rock or Ivory Coast into Google and see what happens.

    • Ursus Magnus says:

      12:19pm | 22/03/12

      Or like the British couple who went online and bought cheap flights to Sydney, only to find when they got off the plane they were in cold, snowy Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada - not sunny Sydney, NSW,  Australia. That would not happen if they went to a real human in a real travel agency !  Digital and paper maps both have a place, but only paper maps and people can provide the interpretation and cultural context that are intrinsic to maps.

      Reply

    • Bill says:

      01:59pm | 22/03/12

      Ursus - it just goes to prove that people outside of Australia have no idea where Sydney is, despite those living in the Australian version thinking that the world revolves around them.

    • iansand says:

      02:51pm | 22/03/12

      At least they did not end up going to Melbourne, Nova Scotia (although that looks more exciting than the Victoriam version) (02) 9287 7923 (02) 9287 7924

    • Craig says:

      08:54am | 24/03/12

      In defense of Nova Scotia, it is a very lovely place. I have a great photo of a road sign to “North Sydney” I took in the province when visiting last year.

      Mind you I think I liked Prince Edward Island more smile

    • radebe says:

      02:02pm | 22/03/12

      perhaps izzy can start an online map store with additional advice service?
      online snapshots with advice would be super for service for that kind of IP, and overnight postage can mean the service can be global?

      Reply

    • clear thinking says:

      05:34pm | 22/03/12

      Upside down is the right way up for a World Map.
      The CIA and the Greens correctly use this upside down map all the time when planning for the world’s future!
      Australia and New Zealand are at the top of the World . Its rightful place!
      UK and USA are near the bottom of the world! Their rightful place!

      Reply

    • Maiara says:

      12:55pm | 18/10/12

      I had a look on your website and I think you had a lovley trip in Scotland last year. Ib4m very happy of our trip we had. I think I see even you had many days which you not can presciate the lovleyness in freedom and enjoing the great nature around you. But that feeling that something is lost in the body is not well for you and anybody.  Please take care of you and the world you living in and I wich you of all my mind a great live. There is so much to see and feel of the world left. My great Annika

      Reply
 
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