Friday, December 23, 2005

GPS Search Engine Browser?


Has this ever been thought of, or could it be done?

Your GPS device in your car gives you maps and driving directions. Why couldn't it function as a search engine too?

Today's Investor's Business Daily has a good article Car navigation prospects point north

These systems use dashboard-mounted displays and computerized voices to provide turn-by-turn driving instructions. They have touch screens for inputting destinations and are pre-loaded with U.S. maps, including thousands of points of interest.

But will it have the point of interest I want?

Makers of cell phones and personal digital assistants are starting to add GPS navigation capabilities into their devices. But they lack the large touch-screen displays and big data storage for maps that consumers want in their cars.

Here's what I would do.

Create a browser/search engine that allows me to search the Web using my GPS device. Tap into YellowPages or Google database for info. When my point of interest comes up, click a link to provide a map and driving directions.

Could this be done? Tell me techies if this is possible and if it exists?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The data in GPS system in the car (Honda Odyssey in my sad case) is only updated when you get an update CD and load it in. There is no real time updating, explains why banks nearby are names of bank before latest merger and therefore now wrong.

Why I can't get satellite updates (GPS does use satellites), I don't know. Sorry, I am not the techie to answer that question.