Skobbler, maker of the free iPhone Sat-Nav solution based on the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project, is at it again.
This time the Hamburg, Germany-based company is gunning for Google Maps with the release of ForeverMap, also powered by data from OMS, which although a paid-for app, bests the search giant’s offering in one significant area: it supports offline use since the maps, which cover Europe, are pre-loaded. → Read More
The Internet is rife with Google Translate failures, but this is the first we’ve seen on Google Maps. Apparently the Rio De Janeiro = Landfill issue on the newly launched Google Maps Brazil is known within Google and is caused by a mixup between a landfill site near Rio and a poor Portuguese to English translation, where the Portuguese is okay but the English is um, suspect. → Read More
So Gmail Instant would actually be useful, but seriously what’s next, Google Calendar Instant? Google Image Search Instant? Okay, maybe those would be helpful too. In fact it’s really difficult to think of a Google service that wouldn’t benefit at least slightly from Instantization.
Inspired by Google Instant and the story of engineer Feross Aboukhadijeh, who got a YouTube job offer via his YouTube Instant experiment, Alabama-based developer Michael Hart used jQuery and the Google Maps API to build Google Maps Instant, a pretty nifty Google Maps updating search for anywhere in the world. And, like Feross, Hart is also looking for a job. → Read More
Google is partnering with European database specialist PAR, which will supply local business data for Google’s Maps service for Sweden and Finland. Under the agreement, PAR will provide, and continually update, data for Google maps from its pan-European business database, EuroContactPool (PDF).
The company claims this database, launched in 2004, now contains information and addresses for more than 22 million companies and 16.4 million named executives in 14 European countries. → Read More
Attention those who still remember their parents’ stacks of old Thomas Guides, Google Maps for Mobile has hit a user base milestone. More than 100 million people a month use the service across various mobile devices according to an interestingly-timed post on the Google Blog.
With GPS killing Android-only features like Google Maps Navigation, as well the increasing Google Maps reliance of app developers who want to power location-based services through the iPhone, it’s no surprise that the extremely useful service has grown exponentially since its launch in 2005. → Read More
I’ve been known to give Facebook a hard time over its lax security and disregard for user privacy but, frankly, Google’s doing a pretty good job at keeping up.
Not to be outdone by the social networking site, the search giant has already got into hot water for the overzealous nature by which it collected WiFi data when driving around towns in 30 countries creating its Google Maps Street View.
As we reported at the time, Street View cars had been “mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks” since 2006, although we didn’t see it as a major privacy issue, stating that it wasn’t likely that Google grabbed enough data about many individuals to make it a real concern. Google, of course, said pretty much the same thing.
Now it seems that they (and we) were wrong. → Read More
Google Maps Navigation for Android now works outside the US or UK as the free turn-by-turn navigation system has been switched on for users in Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, and Belgium (update: and Portugal).
In addition, Google Search by voice is now available for French, German, Italian, and Spanish speakers. English, Mandarin Chinese and Japanese were already supported. → Read More
Oh, a car story written by Nicholas. This is sure to be riddled with errors! (Kidding&mdas;or am I?) Ford Sync, which Matt has talked about for some time, now works with Google Maps. That is, from Google Maps on your computer or mobile or whatever, you select a destination then send it straight to your car. That way, when you hop in the saddle—cars have saddles, right?—your destination is all marked out for you. Pretty neat. → Read More
Yahoo is backing a cycling team. I don’t know why — but they’re doing it. And today their passion got a little boost: from Google.
Google is announcing tomorrow at the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC that Google Maps will now include biking directions in the U.S. Apparently, this was the most-requested feature for the service, as some 57 million Americans ride bikes. → Read More
With the SXSW conference approaching in Austin, we are seeing a lot of geo-location launching this year. A lot of startups are taking advantage of Foursquare’s APIs in particular to get their geo apps quickly out of the gate.
Take FourWhere. It is a pretty basic mashup of Foursquare comments and venues overlayed on Google Maps. You can search by city and neighborhood, and see all the recent tips from people who have checked into various nearby restaurants, bars, stores, and offices. The site forces you to right-click to see comments or venues instead of just having a menu in the side, but it does the job. → Read More
Local search is heating up, especially on advanced mobile phones, where augmented reality apps and immersive photo-realistic apps show great promise. EveryScape, a startup in Waltham Massachusetts which has built out immersive 3D photoscapes for 20 cities, raised a $6 million Series C funding. The investment was led led by SK Telecom Americas, a subsidiary of the Korean telecom giant, which will help EveryScape expand into Asia.
Existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Dace Ventures also participated. EveryScape’s previously raised a $7 million Series B in March, 2008. EveryScape’s previously raised a $7 million Series B in March, 2008 and a $4.5 million Series A in 2005. → Read More
Over-sharing the minutiae of your life is already difficult, so why complicate things with Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare when you only need one service to rule them all? That’s where Google Buzz comes in and makes annoying your friends with news about your snacking habits that much easier. → Read More
Google Maps has just launched a new and nifty feature: suggestions of similar places to your search query in maps. So if you search for Best Buy in your designated area, Maps will suggest (in the more information tab) nearby businesses and places that might be of interest to you, such as other Best Buy stores in the area.
Apparently, suggestions to places aren’t based on a specific characteristic. Google uses a “broad set of signals” to deliver recommendations. Google says they are working on the technology and from my experience, it’s definitely rough. For a search for Best Buy in Chicago, I received recommendations for any businesses that had the terms “Best Buy” in it. → Read More
Patience is a virtue, but as tech fanatics who lap up the latest in hardware and software, we’ve not enirely familiar with that concept. So when we heard that it could take up to a few days for the Nexus One Android OTA update, it was a little disheartening. We want it now! And thanks to some clever folks over at Android Forums, we can get it right this moment. It just takes some simple tinkering and you should be good to go. → Read More
As Google keeps collecting 360-degree Street View, panoramic photos of the world’s roadways, bike paths, and park trails, most of us are becoming accustomed to calling them up on Google Maps. Microosft and even MapQuest now have street-level photos. Now that we’ve mastered placing stitched-together panoramic photos on a map, the next step is obviously to go to video.
Europe seems to be ahead of the U.S. in this regard. I’ve already written about yellowBird in the Netherlands. Now, GlobalVision drove a Citroen equipped with 360-degree video cameras around Switzerland and put up a demo site called VideoStreetView to show off the experience. (They’ll have to be careful, though, the Swiss are particularly sensitive when it comes to public images on maps). → Read More
The battle for the hearts and minds of geo developers creating map-based apps is on. Last month, Twitter turned on its geo API, and services like SimpleGeo and the GeoAPI are offering to do a lot of the heavy lifting for startups that want to create cool geo apps. Not to sit on the sidelines, Google just tweaked its Google Maps API so that it now supports spatial search and search feeds.
Spatial search allows developers to search an area of map for particular features. Their apps would call these searches through a search feed, which can search a boxed area or within the radius of a certain lat/long point. Geo search results can be sorted by different attributes such as distance. Plug this spatial search into Google’s growing directory of local businesses and a developer perhaps could use the API to build an app which shows restaurants or shoe stores within a boundary on a map. → Read More
Earlier this week, Microsoft showed off the Twitter functionality it’s building into the newest version of Bing Maps. The feature shows tweets on a map. But that requires the new Bing Maps beta, which requires Silverlight. If you prefer to use Google Maps, you can also easily see geolocated tweets on your maps thanks to tweet stream RSS feeds that include geolocation data in them.
Simply load up Google Maps, grab the Twitter feed of anyone who checks-in and tags their location, and insert that URL into the search box on Maps. On the map, you’ll see a collection of blue markers indicating where the tweets were sent from (here’s an example). Clicking on any of these markers brings up the tweet itself in a bubble overlay. And in the left side column, you’ll see the a timeline of the geolocated tweets. → Read More
The rapid development of interesting web services can be attributed to the ability of each successive builder to create a layer upon what others have built. The existence of APIs and callable web services means that each builder can add value on top. When you combine this with crowd-sourcing, you effectively pour lighter fluid (in a good way) on this layering process. The only remaining element required is a taxonomy to insure that the crowd-sourcing creates content that is structured enough to make sense despite coming from many hands.
PublicEarth, a Polaris portfolio company that is launching today, takes the power of API layering, crowd-sourcing, and taxonomy and focuses it on maps. PublicEarth describes itself as a wiki of places, specializing in collecting all those “long tail” places that most other databases tend to overlook. → Read More
Alright, everyone, settle down. I know the Google Maps Navigation stuff is pretty amazing, but let’s not write off the traditional GPS makers just yet. They’re not going anywhere for a while. Your parents and friends will see to that.
Hopefully the sudden market loss that companies like Garmin and TomTom saw yesterday will wake the companies up and see that they are doing it wrong. They are in the habit of producing 78 different versions of the same GPS. Each model steps you up $20 and adds another feature. It’s a ridiculous business plan and totally opposite what successful companies are doing.
But it’s true. Google dropped a bombshell on GPS makers yesterday with its free navigation tool that trumps almost anything currently available. The Android 2.0 app is about as robust as you can get thanks to the always connected Android OS and almighty Google. You can simply say “Where is the Best Buy in Flint, MI” and it will take you there. All this is free from the “do no evil” company, Google. → Read More
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