When some months ago Google released ‘My Location’ feature for Google Maps for Mobile a lot of buzz hit the blogosphere. Every tech-blogger wondered about how had Google managed to know the location of cellphones.
But now - just a couple of weeks ago - Google itself has put some light on the business with a post on the Official Google Mobile Blog. And not many people has talked about it. But it’s really good news.
Not only Google has unveiled how they really get to know location, but has announced they are going to give third party developers access to this information.
This will enable development of location-aware applications to every developer.
Now, ‘My Location’ is available in more than 200 countries and across many different platforms, including BlackBerry, Nokia Series 60, Apple iPhone/iPod Touch, Windows Mobile, and many Java phones. Gears for Windows Mobile and Android already contain location APIs.
The major drawback is accuracy, that is clearly insufficient for serious applications. And this issue won’t be solved - if possible - until Google has collected a huge amount of data from cellphones all over the world, which will be possible just when GPS chips were commonplace in every mid-range cellphone.
So, I’m not sure if this new service will have a real impact in deployment of production applications. But, definitely, it will help LBS applications to be mainstream and to boost innovation related to this technology.
