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Google Maps Product Manager Thai Tran told internetnews.com that Google announced the platform a month ago to get apps developed in time for today's launch. He said that when Google announced the platform on Developer Day, it had 10 Mapplets to demo, most of which Google created itself.

In the last month, however, over a 100 developers have submitted mini-apps to the platform.

Tran said Google hopes developers will find ways to monetize apps on the Mapplets platform, creating an innovation cycle that will spin much faster than it would if only Google's development resources alone were set to the task of making Google Maps more useful.

"There are Mapplets for niche audiences that would be useful to significant numbers of users, but probably not to a level where Google could invest in building their features," he said.

The platform model has become popular, perhaps the most notable one being Facebook's recent platform launch. Apple, Microsoft and eBay are other companies that have also opened access to their customers to third parties in hopes of spurring innovation.