Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Google Offers Location Based Services?

Everytime my new Business 2.0 magazine comes I feel like Steve Martin in The Jerk yelling "the new phonesbooks are here!". There's always so much useful information in it.

The full story of GoogleNet by Om Malik is in this months issue.

He elaborates on how and why Google is building "the infrastructure" that the will allow them to continue their growth.

Here's a paragraph that caught my eye.

In April it launched a Google-sponsored Wi-Fi hotspot in San Francisco’s Union Square shopping district, built by a local startup called Feeva. Feeva is reportedly readying more free hotspots in California, Florida, New York, and Washington, and it's possible that Google may be involved.

Feeva CEO Nitin Shah confirms that the company is working with Google but won't discuss details. Google's interest in Feeva likely stems from the startup's proprietary technology, which can determine the location of every Wi-Fi user and would allow Google to serve up advertising and maps based on real-time data.

Wow.

Not only can Google continue to dominating advertising on the Internet through the PC, but if Google can determine your location through Wi-Fi, they could own the location based services market too.

I am thinking ahead, but what if GoogleTalk gets adopted on the cell phone.

Add their location based service(using Wi-Fi) feature to a cell phone and think of the possibilities.

By using a Wi-Fi locator, does this eliminate the GPS function? Can Google go right around the service providers?

Permission will still be required to advertise though, but I'm sure brands can think of creative (and useful) services that will get consumers to opt-in.

Thoughts, comments?

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