ABSTRACT
The Internet provided the conduit, but it was the Web that truly revolutionized cartography (and lots of other things) both by giving website developers and content providers a highly integrated arena for exchanging information quickly, and by giving users an efficient way to search and explore. More efficient processors, wider bandwidth, and more commodious digital storage were also important, but the Web was the catalyst. One kind of trickle-down occurred when the private sector took over the state's role as the prime provider of geographic information. Inspired by Washington's infatuation with privatization and public-private partnerships, and helped along by bureaucratic inertia and venture capital, mapping corporations like Google appropriated the Geological Survey's longstanding role as the nation's principal maker and seller of topographic maps. Google's Street View has been blamed for lost privacy, especially by the Germans and the Swiss, who forced the company to blur facades or signage if the owner requests.
