Having Google followed an OGC standard is an incredible good step forward for the google maps ecosystem. This can really speed up developments on the clients side. It was not that useful to have the best client if there was always a place where the data looked better. Kudos to google.

And if you are interested on encoding Geospatial Data there is a format called Geoparquet that is on the way of standarization: https://geoparquet.org/ Essentially adding metadata on the extensible schema metadata streucture that parquet supports. Think of WKB in a column. With more exciting stuff coming that way.

Hey Vlad, just came to say hi and wish you the best. You are one of the best engineers I have ever met, and one of the nicest persons too. It is really sad to see you and your entire country going through this. Will keep following your advice on how to support Ukraine and if there is any mapping support or anything else, well, you know where we are. We are following you closely. Big hug.

Here is the actual contract https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1543151/000119312519... It includes other topics like Uber has to share their location data to Google and can not use any other 3th party provider at the same time as Google Maps.