Do you think Opencaching is actually bad for Groundspeak.

[Coldgears]

I'm posting this here because I have a feeling the community over at the official forums would blame me for starting an argument again. But in all honesty, is this really that big of a threat? Is there a real possibility of this thing actually beating out groundspeak?

[gerkmax]

People have been using GC and are comfortable with GC, and they'll continue to use it. It's not like there's some major issue GC users have that OC will resolve for users. So unless OC starts doing A-MAZING things for their users, like free GPS units, I don't think users will be running from GC. If anything, it'll be used in addition to GC.

[addisonbr]

I'm hoping it shocks groundspeak out of the sense of complacency that companies with no competition seem to suffer from.

People have been begging for an API for a long, long time. opencaching.com opens for business this morning with a fully open API, and groundspeak announces later the same day that they'll be releasing an API in January?

If that's what it takes to get the company to listen, I say great.

[lefalaf]

[halijusapa]

I noticed it says "import existing hides and finds".....do they mean from GC.com? If that is true/possible, that could really make it a threat (but I imagine if that is what it is it would spark a lawsuit so it probably isn't.....).

As I noted in another thread in here, I don't think the threat to GC is with existing longtime cachers, but with future newbie cachers who may have little prior knowledge of GC.com and thus not have any reason to be there vs. Opencaching (and if they learn of geocaching by buying a Garmin unit, will get a lot of literature on Opencaching). My gut feeling, as noted in that thread, is Opencaching becomes big enough that it and GC.com kind of knock each other down, resulting in a merger of one into another, which I think would be a good thing for all the reasons addisonbr mentioned (a lot of things wrong with gc.com would become integrated into it, like the return of virtuals)......they had a relative "monopoly" for a long time and some real competition was probably due, especially with the coming demise of Terracaching.

By the way, go into the Groundspeak forums (something that this thread has enlightened me to do for the first time in 3 months) and you'll see a bunch of angry threads about how an account named CavScout got a 1 year ban from gc.com for whatever reason, but they waited until now 10 months into it to archive his 102 EARTHCACHES and tick off much of the earthcaching community. And better yet, when said community complains on the forums they keep closing the threads. Both are probably not smart actions by Groundspeak on the dawn of a potential major competitor arising......the irony is that Groundspeak made an exception to their "a cache has to have a container" rule and moved Earthcaches back from Waymarking because the educational sponsor behind them complained.

[TeamMagicParrot]

Looking around the Opencaching website, I don't really see a whole lot of caches in the Westchester area, I see a few on Long Island, but overall not too many (am I seeing this right?)

Anyways, it don't suspect that it will take on the full popularity that Geocaching.com has taken over in the past few years- the Groundspeak crew has done a really nice job in my opinion with their website and features, even though they are not perfect, they are the "original" geocaching website creators, and I think it would make sense that since they were the first, most people won't want to start again from 0 hides and no experience on a new website..... just IMO

[addisonbr]

[halijusapa]

[gerkmax]

Just putting out there... "free AWESOME GPSr's"

[addisonbr]

Wait, what?

[gerkmax]

HAHAHA! Just a telepathic suggestion to OC

[halijusapa]

Interesting that Groundspeak is suddenly going to be down for SIX HOURS on the 14th to make some major site upgrades......

[Tatanka49]

releasing an API in January?

API? Fill me in. I don't read the Groundspeak forums since they cut off my complaints about reviewers and teaching events.

J

[addisonbr]

The API is something that allows developers to write third-party tools to interact with the company's code or database. Basically, an API lets other people write software besides just you.

Companies that have open API's tend to see an avalanche of third-party tools develop. For example, you know how almost every web site you go to uses Google Maps as the engine that drives their maps (store locator, jogging trails, etc.)? That's because Google Maps has an open API that is easy to work with. There is a bit of irony in noticing that Groundspeak switched to Google to power their cache maps several years ago. Why were they able to do this? Because Google Maps has an open API.

Groundspeak on the other hand, has a history of actively disallowing people access to their data for making third-party tools. One of the very, very, very, very first mapping applications for geocaches was developed by a guy named Ed Hall. He created Buxley's maps, using cache data from geocaching.com. There are a few exceptions that they've carved out, mostly involving giving permission to a few applications to accept PQ uploads (GSAK, mygeocachingprofile.com). But those are very much on a case-by-case basis and are pretty restricted. Those sites aren't allowed access to groundspeak's data themselves, for instance; they can only take in the limited PQs that a user can generate. Interestingly enough, Buxley's maps still exists as a site, although it claims to carry no groundspeak listings - http://brillig.com/geocaching/new_york.shtml .

Know why there aren't any legitimate competing iPhone apps for geocaching? Because groundspeak's API is closed and they won't allow anyone else access to their data. It's a good strategy for keeping a large percentage of the pie for yourself, but not so good a strategy for growing the pie. They've moved pretty aggressively to block people who have come up with workarounds (like interfacing with the servers through the web).

As one contrasting, simple example... Opencaching.com uses Bing maps. I don't really like Bing maps. Within the first 48 hours that Opencaching.com debuted (with their totally open API), one of the guys in the groundspeak forums whipped up a really neat applet that lets you pan around for OC caches using Google Maps and various filters for cache types and ratings. In hours he created something that was arguably better than the map function that groundspeak had a several years head start on! How? Because OC and Google both feature open APIs. It was a cool demonstration, but it was quickly deleted by the moderators.

I'm under the impression that groundspeak was at least considering opening their API up a bit before, as it was the highest vote-getter on the "Feedback" site. But the timing of their announcement made a lot of folks feel it was in reaction to OC.com.

[addisonbr]