Google Shuts Down Maps Coordinate, Its Mobile Workforce Management Service

Back in 2012, Google announced the Maps Coordinate service, a tool for managing mobile workforces with the help of mobile apps and a web-based dashboard. Using Maps Coordinate, businesses could track and dispatch their mobile employees, whether they were truck drivers, pizza delivery guys or plumbers. Now, it looks like Google is about to call it quits on Maps Coordinate. Google today sent an email to existing subscribers, telling them that the service will shut down on January 21, 2016.

This is in line with Google’s overall approach to its mapping tools. Last summer, Google rolled Maps Coordinate into its Maps Engine Pro product — a bundle of mapping-related tools that’s now called “Maps for Work.” Maps Engine, however, is shutting down a year from now, too, as Google plans to focus on its mapping APIs in the Google Maps for Work program. The Maps Coordinate API will shut down, too, however.

After launching a limited beta of Maps Coordinate in 2012, the company rolled it out to anybody interested in signing up in 2013. Except for rolling it into Maps Engine, things remained rather quiet around the service and you’ll be hard-pressed to find any obvious links to it on Google’s sites today. Chances are then that Coordinate wasn’t as successful as Google hoped it would be and given its tendency to end unpopular programs, it’s now giving Coordinate the ax, too.

Update: and here is the statement we received from Google:

“Maps and location information are valuable tools for businesses — whether it’s helping people find your store locations or identifying sales opportunities across town. To help our Maps for Work customers continue to get the highest impact from our products, in 2015 we’ll focus on helping customers deliver location information via our Maps APIs and shift away from selling any non-Maps API products. We’ll support our Maps for Work customers through their contracts and work closely with them and our partners through this transition.”

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