I love Google now. I was thinking about upgrading from curve to the latest one But found out Cingular charges 10 dollar for GPS services and dumped the idea. Who is gonna pay for that any more.
Nick Dsvis
· 2 years ago
The killer peer-based geo service will be real-time traffic AND radar information in my bluetooth-enabled GPS (or GPRS or EVDO like Amazon Kindle). So long as the data were secure and anonymous, I could transmit my speed and location, as well as various radar (this could also help filter false positives, since the radar would be present 24/7) points. So I could get advanced notice of traffic delays and get rerouted automatically well in advance. As car GPS becomes more prevalent (and now many good devices selling at $100-$150), we get more data points. This information could also be sold to traffic-consuming entities (radio stations, etc) for a great deal of licensing revenue.
Brandon McLarty
· 2 years ago
I am interested in how the entrepreneur that founded Navion fared. Navizon is a great service, what does Google entering the same space do to Navizon and it's service?
Here is a question for the community? What options does one (small company/entrepreneur ) have when Google enters your space?
After Google bought GrandCentral, a knock-off of our 1Num service, we took a two front approach.
1) W are enhancing our services and product offerings, and looking at new applications for our platform.
2) We are also working our way thru the USPTO to expediate prosectution of our pending published patent application based on an ongoing infringement.
fredwilson
· 2 years ago
Its a damn good question. And one that I will think hard about and hopefully post on
Fred
Dhrumil
· 2 years ago
Fred, is your new google maps running slow? Mine is super slow.
Anil - surely what google seems to be doing is exactly that but free no? and device agnostic. Actually - if you look at where the might be headed it could be somewhat threatening to lots of business models. If they (as is being reported) succeed in their efforts related to the auction on monday, they then have the entire value chain sown up - with NO hardware. that then means ubiquitous access to Geolocation apps, peer produced ofcourse, and device independent. This even threatens the carriers. Clearly they believe the future is software and services, the plumbing and hardware can be someone else's headache.
Ho Yun
· 2 years ago
I just installed it as well, and I'm thrilled. It's interesting that you connect the technology with stock. I'm high on the technology, but I'm not convinced that it will be easy to tap any monetization potential from this (sort of like Facebook's current problem). I've read speculation that GOOG will be able to provide more targeted location-based advertising in the future, so we'll see.
markslater
· 2 years ago
well you can always take the inverse approach and short the networks!
cranstone
· 2 years ago
I think you have to broaden the concept a little further. First of all why it's not just about cell tower triangulation, it's about every way of calculating position, i.e. address, city, state, zip, GPS, Wi-Fi, Tower Triangulation, Bluetooth. All of these items are in fact data silo's. The power comes from being able to aggregate ANY data (location) silo and then share that information with ANY web service.
The one thing you notice immediately after installing the Google solution is "why can't I share that location information with my service?" Well now the answer is you can. Your asking for a mobile client with an Open API that can aggregate "data" (regardless of type) and then share that with ANY web service such as Twitter or Outside.in - Our solution enables that to happen. In addition you can display all of the information directly inside the browser rather than asking the customer to learn another user interface. On top of that we've also invented a way for your service i.e. Twitter or Outside.in to directly brand the browser and appear "Inside" the regular menu. Our home page explains what we've done, and how we've done it and you can clearly see the example of Amazon branding inside the browser menu. The web site is www.5o9inc.com and the Open API site is http://www.5o9.net/MobileMe/Documentation/Clien... so you can ask your portfolio companies to review it and verify this post. Essentially they can build a Mobile Widget that talks directly to our platform and in addition can integrate location information. We already have the Skyhook API's so it wouldn't be that hard to integrate the whole solution and then your customers could have some unique. Branded Twitter and Outside.in directly inside the mobile browser with location support from GPS and Wi-Fi. Time frame to complete this would in the region of 90 days.
Cheers,
Peter
Luke H
· 2 years ago
I'm also digging the new gmaps "my location" service. I wish there was a way for me to help them improve the database, even though I don't have gps on my phone. As far as I can tell there's no way for me to report my actual position.
Martin Dufort
· 2 years ago
Hi Fred :
I think we are on the same page. Especially interesting is the capability to detect the current cell id from within the cell phone. I tested the service on the same provider (Rogers) using two different Windows Mobile 6 devices at the exact same spot. One was working the other was not. Why ?
The Google software was unable to obtain the current cell id to which the phone was connected in one of them. There is two variables at play (detect current cell id from phone, map it to known location in the area).
Later - Martin
Raj
· 2 years ago
Have you installed Yahoo's mobile app on your Blackberry. It's pretty killer --- used GPS For directions, locating businesses, etc.
I really need a Yelp client for BB and life would be better.
Matt McAlister
· 2 years ago
Yahoo! Research Berkeley has done some pioneering work in this space not just by building a cell tower location service but also by opening up an API for developers to tap into the data. The service includes functions to get data for any app to use and also to update the database for the whole community. if apps agree that a particular cell ID is in zip code 94107, for example, then the ZoneTag database will offer that tag when other apps pull data from the service.
All Comments
Here is a question for the community?
What options does one (small company/entrepreneur ) have when Google enters your space?
After Google bought GrandCentral, a knock-off of our 1Num service, we took a two front approach.
1) W are enhancing our services and product offerings, and looking at new applications for our platform.
2) We are also working our way thru the USPTO to expediate prosectution of our pending published patent application based on an ongoing infringement.
Fred
The one thing you notice immediately after installing the Google solution is "why can't I share that location information with my service?" Well now the answer is you can. Your asking for a mobile client with an Open API that can aggregate "data" (regardless of type) and then share that with ANY web service such as Twitter or Outside.in - Our solution enables that to happen. In addition you can display all of the information directly inside the browser rather than asking the customer to learn another user interface. On top of that we've also invented a way for your service i.e. Twitter or Outside.in to directly brand the browser and appear "Inside" the regular menu. Our home page explains what we've done, and how we've done it and you can clearly see the example of Amazon branding inside the browser menu. The web site is www.5o9inc.com and the Open API site is http://www.5o9.net/MobileMe/Documentation/Clien... so you can ask your portfolio companies to review it and verify this post. Essentially they can build a Mobile Widget that talks directly to our platform and in addition can integrate location information. We already have the Skyhook API's so it wouldn't be that hard to integrate the whole solution and then your customers could have some unique. Branded Twitter and Outside.in directly inside the mobile browser with location support from GPS and Wi-Fi. Time frame to complete this would in the region of 90 days.
Cheers,
Peter
I think we are on the same page. Especially interesting is the capability to detect the current cell id from within the cell phone. I tested the service on the same provider (Rogers) using two different Windows Mobile 6 devices at the exact same spot. One was working the other was not. Why ?
The Google software was unable to obtain the current cell id to which the phone was connected in one of them. There is two variables at play (detect current cell id from phone, map it to known location in the area).
Later - Martin
I really need a Yelp client for BB and life would be better.
more here: http://developer.yahoo.com/yrb/
see ZoneTags and TagMaps
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