On 4 Dec 2007, at 00:16, Mark Maclennan wrote:
Indeed - According to a NYT article on this new Google service: "Google figures out which cell towers are where by enlisting the help of a million of its mobile map users who happen to have phones with built-in G.P.S. devices that are not locked by the carriers (that means no one who uses Verizon).
This is what they allude to on their video. I'd be surprised if they didn't start with a dump of data from gsmloc.org or some other global database, after all this sort of tech has been around a while. http:// www.wired.com/science/discoveries/multimedia/2006/06/71170
It would be great if Google were to release this data into the wild. :)
The payoff for Google from building out its mapping service is in associating your searches - say, for a Starbuck - to your phone's unique ID."
Personally, I'd like to see something a bit more interesting done with this sort of tech. For Google it's a no-brainer - being an ad- broker the more specific their targeting is for them, the better. However, if you're the sort of person who can't find a Starbucks in an urban area then you probably can't operate Google maps in any case.
Unfortunately being a walled garden there's no way to hook into GMM, so whilst this tech is useful for targeted ads from a single source, it would be great to see something similar for user generated content/ recommendations (eg search for coffee, it returns a list of local coffee bars in order of recommendation by users, rather than just those who have paid to appear on a map.)
Cheers, A -- Andrew Larcombe Freelance Geospatial, Database & Web Programming web: http://www.andrewlarcombe.co.uk email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] icq: 306690163 _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking
