As enlightening as The Facebook Effect, Elon Musk, and Chaos Monkeys―the compelling, behind-the-scenes story of the creation of one of the most essential applications ever devised, and the rag-tag team that built it and changed how we navigate the world
Never Lost Again chronicles the evolution of mapping technology―the "overnight success twenty years in the making." Bill Kilday takes us behind the scenes of the tech’s development, and introduces to the team that gave us not only Google Maps but Google Earth, and most recently, Pokémon GO.
He takes us back to the beginning to Keyhole―a cash-strapped startup mapping company started by a small-town Texas boy named John Hanke, that nearly folded when the tech bubble burst. While a contract with the CIA kept them afloat, the company’s big break came with the first invasion of Iraq; CNN used their technology to cover the war and made it famous. Then Google came on the scene, buying the company and relaunching the software as Google Maps and Google Earth. Eventually, Hanke’s original company was spun back out of Google, and is now responsible for Pokémon GO and the upcoming Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.
Kilday, the marketing director for Keyhole and Google Maps, was there from the earliest days, and offers a personal look behind the scenes at the tech and the minds developing it. But this book isn’t only a look back at the past; it is also a glimpse of what’s to come. Kilday reveals how emerging map-based technologies including virtual reality and driverless cars are going to upend our lives once again.
Never Lost Again shows us how our worldview changed dramatically as a result of vision, imagination, and implementation. It’s a crazy story. And it all started with a really good map.
How did a tiny, cash-strapped startup become the foundation for Google’s mapping revolution and change the way a billion people see the world?
- A Tech Memoir from the Inside: Go behind the curtain with Bill Kilday, the marketing director who was there from Keyhole’s near-failure to its game-changing acquisition by Google.
- Startup Survival Story: Witness the gripping tale of a company on the brink of collapse during the dot-com bust, only to be saved by unexpected contracts from the CIA and CNN.
- The Vision of John Hanke: Discover the relentless drive of the founder whose journey took him from a small Texas town to creating Google Earth and, years later, the global phenomenon of Pokémon GO.
- Silicon Valley History: Explore a pivotal moment in tech as a scrappy team of innovators changes our world, laying the groundwork for everything from driverless cars to augmented reality.
Bill Kilday’s twenty-five-year career in technology and game marketing has centered on maps and augmented reality. He served as marketing director for digital mapping start-up Keyhole, and marketing lead for Google’s Geo division during the launch of Google Maps and Google Earth. He is currently VP of marketing for Niantic Inc., a spinout company from Google responsible for GPS-based games Ingress, Pokémon GO, and the upcoming Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. The youngest of eight children, Kilday was born in Houston, Texas, and now lives in Austin, Texas, with his family. He has a terrible sense of direction.
