With all the recent discussion surrounding SaaS, I thought this would be a perfect time to highlight a creative use of Web application technology that fits squarely into the SaaS definition without competing with the traditional software licensing model.

Google is great. Why? Because love 'em or hate 'em, they give us something new to talk about almost every day, and that makes a blogger happy! It's latest innovation is a natural extension of a service it has been perfecting for a while now.

Google Maps is coming to a gas (petrol) station near you! Google is licensing (or providing free?) software that allows gas station owners to set up monitors on their pumps, connected to Google Maps, which patrons can use to locate, well, anything the station owner wants them to be able to locate, while they pump their gas.

The genius is in its simplicity, both how natural it was to do this and how well it works for all parties involved:

1. Someone at Google realized gas stations are likely the most common place people ask for directions. That same person realized Google has an application that helps people get directions. Duh!
2. Service stations that offer Google maps are more valuable to customers, most likely drawing a larger customer base.
3. Because the gas station owner can program points of interest into the system, he/she has additional revenue opportunities.
4. Google might charge for the software, or it might use advertisement deployment to profit from the system (I don't know the pricing models for this, if they've even been released yet). If the gas station makes substantially more money as a result of the system, the cost is justified. Is the additional income is less than licensing costs, ad deployment could make the system free, and all additional revenue is strictly profit.

Here's the best part: no other map sites or PC software vendors were harmed during the production of this system. Kudos to Google for putting 1+1 together before anyone else, particularly since they're one of the last mapping companies to go live with a stable service. Mapquest could have done this seven years ago. Maybe they never thought of it? Maybe they thought of it, but didn't think it could work? I guess you don't become a pioneer in an industry unless you...well...pioneer something, eh?

SaaS at its finest, folks!

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Every so often, I'll do a little online expedition in search of information on upcoming product releases. The Adobe/Macromedia merger in late 2005 was of particular concern to me in the product release department, for two reasons reasons: 1) Macromedia GUI design is historically outstanding and Adobe GUI design (my opinion only) is doo-doo, and 2) Adobe bought Macromedia, not the other way around.

My favorite piece of design software is set to be released by its new parent company for the first time April 20th. Alan Musselman, formerly of Macromedia and retained by Adobe, offers his top 10 reasons to be excited about Fireworks CS3 in his blog. Indeed, the official product tour looks pretty promising - full layered import of Photoshop documents is a fantastic addition! I worry that components of Adobe (un)usability will find their way into the latest release (there's little more frustrating as a Fireworks user than opening a PSD, clicking on an object as discovering that selecting something on the screen doesn't actually select anything), but I'm excited to some of the Photoshop filters ported over as part of the default installation.

So, what's your visual design software of choice for the Web? Are you a traditional Photoshop layout type? Are you a Fireworks junkie, like me? Perhaps you enjoy using Illustrator or the (now defunct?) Freehand for a little off-label Web layout work? Maybe you're GIMPy? Fireworks and Homesite are my bread and butter. What's your product or product mix of choice?

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==========[ MORE ABOUT PAUL ]==========

PaulHirsch.com . International Web Developers Network . Web Hosting Talk . Equentity Host