Next-Gen GPS: Google Positioning System?

by Jarrett Martineau | November 28, 2007 at 12:18 pm

764 views | 5 Recommendations | 1 comment

Are GPS technologies soon to be eclipsed by mobile web and wireless applications that can provide highly accurate, location-based, hyper-local information to users?

If Google has anything to do with it, the answer seems to be yes. And with beta accuracy rates pushing 97% (in high cell tower-density areas), we'll soon be googleably-located whenever and wherever we are.

It's almost time to toss out the GPS and that old compass, just make sure your Blackberry is fully charged before you wander off into the wild.

Despite all the hoopla around location-based services, the fact of the matter is that a mere 15 percent of handsets have a built-in Global Positioning System. Given Google’s recent wireless push, one shouldn’t be surprised that Google is releasing an updated version of its Google Maps for Mobile application, which comes with a new service that gives you rudimentary location information without needing a built-in GPS. This new feature is called My Location and is still in the beta phase of its lifecycle. The service will work wherever Google Maps for Mobile is currently available — the U.S., UK, Europe and parts of Asia, for instance.

While not quite high on the accuracy chart, the new application uses information broadcasted from cell towers and triangulates your approximate location. (Because of how the application estimates your location, a certain amount of information is sent to Google servers, and if you have privacy concerns, then you can turn the My Location feature off in your maps application.)

Google (GOOG) says the application will put you somewhere in the 500- to 5,000-meter range of where you really are, depending on the cell tower density. From there, you can use the “0″ key to get yourself positioned on the map.

[...]

While Google says the location might not be that precise, putting the
accuracy at between 500 and 5,000 meters, in my tests using a 8800
Series Blackberry, the accuracy was close to 97 percent.

Since I posted this story earlier this afternoon, it's been gaining incredible momentum across multiple media sites and technology blogs. Every time Google makes an announcement, launches a new product, or introduces a new feature, they cause a tidal wave of buzz:

[q
url="http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/11/28/tech-google-location.html?ref=rss"]Google
Inc. announced on Wednesday a new feature of its mapping application
for mobile phones that lets users find their location without the aid
of satellite technology.

The technology, called "My Location," is part of the internet search
company's version 2.0 of Google Maps, released in a beta edition on
Wednesday.

Instead of tracking users through Global Positioning System
technology — which tracks a person's position using satellites — the
new Google service uses cellphone tower information to provide an
approximate location.

[/q]

[q
url="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/google-doesnt-know-where-you-are-but-it-has-a-good-guess/index.html?ref=technology"]
Google Doesn’t Know Where You Are (But It Has a Good Guess)

Users of Blackberries and many other smartphones can now push a button
and the Google mapping service will figure out more or less sort of
where they are.[/q]

Google Mobile Maps PinPoints Your Location Without GPS

Google has been adding features to its maps at a fast and furious pace. Yesterday, it was terrain and wiki-style collaboration for its Web-based maps. Today, it updated its mobile maps to pinpoint your locations by triangulating between cell towers (or if you have GPS on your phone, it uses that, but only 15 percent of phones sold this year even support GPS). I just downloaded the My Location app to my Blackberry (sans GPS), and it pinpointed me to within a block of my location in Manhattan.

This seems pretty cool. Although I am sure there are some not so cool things about it as well like privacy and the fact that google is the one doing it. I am sure it is probably another technology that they "borrowed" from somewhere and produced it before anyone else could. Just a guess.

Another usefull tech gadget that came out recenlty was software that you can download onto your phone or actually any pretty much any usb device which lets you track your gadget. So if someone steals your ipod you can track it via gps. Great idea. Wish I thought of it.

Technology seems to be moving almost faster than we can keep up with it but there is some really usefull and fun things. I am waiting on the portable computers where your screen is in glasses and the os is basically in your phone. I'll find a link for these two.

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Next-Gen GPS: Google Positioning System?

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