Via Om Malik, Google has released another upgrade to Google Maps for Mobile, which in addition to GPS support, can now show users without GPS their location. As Google notes, it doesn’t have the accuracy of GPS, but it’s free, and it’s likely to be good enough to be useful in many cases. A quick check just now showed fairly decent accuracy, with the app claiming it was within 1700m, though it appears quite a bit better than that.
This is sure to set off people concerned about privacy, since it adds location to the vast trove of information Google has about its users (though the feature can be disabled in the application). But the implications for Google services are a little bigger. Sure, there’s direction-finding, though I think that may not be the most important use case in this context.
Now Google has a real vehicle for local search. Instead of crudely SMSing “pizza 89135″ to Google to find a pizza joint around here, now I fire up the app, find my location, then search for pizza — and it brings up a map showing me where these places are. (See the second pic)
That’s a far better experience, and it also doesn’t rely on my having any idea of where I am. For instance, I know my own zip code, but I don’t know its boundaries, nor do I know any others here in Vegas. So if I’m out looking for something, I’ve got little idea where to start. That’s the big problem with local search — we tend to spend a lot of our time in the same places, and we get to know them. We’re most likely to use search when we’re in an unfamiliar area — but often our unfamiliarity with the area precludes us from even being able to divine a starting point for our search. You don’t necessarily need GPS to get a starting point, as this new feature highlights.
I continue to be slightly amazed at the speed with which Google gets these apps and services out, and the overall quality of them, though I guess it’s a testament to the amount of resources they’re throwing at mobile these days.
Here’s a video explaining how My Location works:
Two really minor quibbles: I had to learn about this update from a blog, rather than from the software itself. Opera Mini recently let me know that there was a new version out, and gave me the chance to upgrade, and it’s one of the few mobile apps I’ve seen do that. Also, it would still be great to have support for the My Maps feature in the mobile client. Perhaps in the next version!
[...] MobHappy, aunque sin duda es una de las notas del día en el ambiente [...]
How much does Google pay for the locator info?…
I wonder how much Google has to pay for that location info, because it’s not free. In Germany the mobile operators charge 0.10 from third parties for every localization. In Berlin we have Qiro which does quite the same, but more advanced. You can lo…
[...] Google Maps for Mobile Shows Your Location, Even Without GPS Cue cries of: now they know where you are! Always! (tags: google mobile news bigbrother paranoid) [...]
[...] Malik Scoble AppleInsider TechCrunch Slashdot TheRegister O’Reilly AllAboutSymbian Mashable Carlo Longino [...]
[...] Carlo Longino homes in on the fact that it provides, finally, a somewhat humane and useful basis for a lot of the location-based services use-cases that mobile service providers and product marketers have salivated over for around a decade. [...]
Google Maps is one of my favorite apps on my Treo, but sadly it looks like My Location isn’t available on Palm OS devices yet.
Getting my location even approximately would be a huge usability improvement. Without it, the map will also start up at its last position. Auto location saves the first step of “finding” my location by entering city/state or zip code.
As you said, mobile local search seems to rely on zip code, but that’s not very helpful outside of your home town.