The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2004–2008
Google gave up KML so rivals would adopt it — and it became the geo annotation standard
Google donated Keyhole's KML to the OGC in 2008; a neutral standard meant even Microsoft could adopt it, and KML became the format for map annotation.
Google · Keyhole Inc.
the move
Keyhole Inc. built a geospatial visualization company whose XML format — Keyhole Markup Language — displayed geographic data in 2D and 3D; Google acquired Keyhole in 2004, and KML became the file format of Google Earth and Google Maps. By April 2008, Google Earth had been downloaded 350 million times, and the format was already being used by Microsoft's Virtual Earth.
The decisive move was to give it away. Google submitted KML to the Open Geospatial Consortium and, as its product manager put it, "Starting today, Google no longer controls KML": the OGC announced the completion of KML's standardization process and took responsibility for maintaining and extending it. The OGC adopted KML 2.2 as an implementation standard whose stated goal was "one international standard language for expressing geographic annotation and visualization" on web maps and earth browsers.
Why it worked: a neutral owner removed the objection that adopting KML meant betting on a competitor. Microsoft had already added KML support to Virtual Earth, and the OGC's 345 member organizations — including Boeing, NASA and Google's rivals — could treat KML as infrastructure rather than a gift with strings. The format spread as the common way to share places.
why it works
- A neutral standards body removes the "adopt a rival's format" objection.
- Google Earth's 350 million downloads made KML the de facto format before standardization.
- XML with simple placemarks, paths and overlays maps directly to map products.
- Even Microsoft adopted it, proving cross-competitor acceptance.
what transfers
The fastest way to make your format the standard is to stop owning it: a neutral body removes rivals' objections, and the format spreads with everyone's distribution.
what came after
KML remains an OGC standard and the common interchange for geographic annotation and visualization; Google Earth, Google Maps and a wide range of GIS tools continue to read and write it. The 2008 donation is a canonical example of a company making its format the standard by surrendering control of it.
references
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