Google’s unleashed its MyMaps earlier today, which allows, amongst other things, people to mark up maps, publish maps, and share maps. Cool stuff. However, the *real* story behind MyMaps is how Google has just taken out companies who are currently using Google Map’s API to create little mashups of their own which currently do many of the things that MyMaps does right now.

Om Malik calls it the “End of Innocence” for the Web2.0. That’s an appropriate term as many start ups (and I’ll use that in the loosest way possible now) who have used public API’s to create no-cost mashups are now finding themselves in the cross hairs of the parent companies. Either, like Alexaholic, of being targetted with legal action, or, like MyMaps, of finding that the parent company has just created a competing product.

Some detractors might call this a giant screw job. After all, is it “right” to start competing against small (and compared to Google they’re microscopic) start ups that have evangelized your product through the use of your API? Probably not, but I’d all that life.

I’ll go one further than Om, though, and say that its positively Machiavellian.

Brilliant, almost in its ruthless execution. Release a public API that encourages mashups. Allow a thousands ideas to bloom. Cherry pick the ones which the “market” has elected in terms of traffic, buzz, and popularity.

Then, copy that idea. What’s the real result? The parent company gets enormous R&D out of new uses of their own applications, plus testing, completely free.

Its hard to know where this will take the whole “2.0″ movement. But I think it will definitely cool enthusiasm for mashups as part of a core application offering — after all, now that there’s precedent, who knows if Google, Yahoo, or even Digg will use your next great mashup as the basis for their own offering? I think there’s no developer who isn’t having the same thoughts right now, and they’re right to think it. There’s no doubt that there’s always room for differentiation into niche products, but the question remains: is what’s left a big enough piece of a pie to live off of? How about *after* Google’s moved into your space?

So is this the end of 2.0 innocence? Maybe. But on the other hand, many of the great Web 2.0 startups weren’t wholly mashups either. They might borrow concepts from different applications, but many were built from the ground up. And rather than mashups, perhaps that’s where developers might find themselves going back to.