HopStop? Yes, it’s new to me, but today the company, which says it offers directions on public transportation for points in New York, Boston, Chicago, San Fransisco and DC, put out a press release noted it now offers location-based ads for the site. (The PR is not the website, which BTW, has a 2006 copyright!) I think they use Yahoo Maps!, but data is from NAVTEQ. But, none of those are why this site will fail; the reason is they don’t understand urban public transportation!
What do I mean? Well, here in Boston, the MBTA serves many more communities than Boston! Our subway goes to my city of Somerville and way far away to Quincy. However, in the routing tool you can only search on addresses in those five cities noted above. So, no, they can’t find my address, which is very close to two subway stops… The same I suspect is true in DC - the Metro goes to Virginia and Maryland! You can “point on a map” to note the start and end points, but that’s rather a challenge, especially if you are from out of town!
Another challenge? The site name is hard to say and remember! I’m happy as a clam with our new MBTA Google mashup routing here in Boston; I’m not switching.
by Adena Schutzberg on 03/20 at 12:49 PM |
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This week’s issue of InformationWeek has an article called "Maps Meet Mashups." It’s a fantastic review of how mashups have or have not infiltrated down to business users. One statisitic quoted in the article hit home particularly: "But full-blown location mashups created by businesses aren’t that common. In a recent survey of 250 business technology professionals by InformationWeek, only 7% of respondents said their companies widely use mashup tools. ‘Businesses have bigger priorities at the moment than worrying how to mash up logistical data or workforce information into a mapping app,’ says Matt Brown, an analyst at Forrester Research." These are exactly the issues we are trying to raise at Location Intelligence 2007. Hopefully the mainstream business execs will wake up to the potential of mapping technology soon…it can be a competitive advantage that many are already using such as the companies mentioned in the article like Starbucks, UPS, Ford, GM, Target, etc.
by Joe Francica on 03/20 at 09:48 AM |
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Our Location Intelligence Conference is just a few weeks away and we are asking readers and attendees to give their opinion on the topics they feel are most relevent to discuss. Please take a moment to vote on the issues you feel are most important. Here are the choices:
- Open Source Geospatial Technology
- Business Opportunities of Local Search
- How Do You Sell Web Services
- Intellectual Property Rights
- Location-enabling the Consumer
- Real-time, Dynamic Content (traffic, weather, etc.)
- Social, Location-based Networking
- Where are the VC’s putting their money.
- Will Satellite Imagery Drive Location Intelligent Solutions
- Enterprise Systems and Location Technology (CRM, ERP, etc.)
Vote at the LI website
by Joe Francica on 03/20 at 09:41 AM |
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Engadget cites the Street on a patent suit from Keystone Autonics targeting the satellite radio twins use of satellite signals. While the article doesn’t cite the patent it notes:
According to The Street, the patent is a modification of an earlier patent (also granted Hindman), which applies to satellite radios (as well as CD players and analog radios) that input and display wireless data from satellite sources. Apparently the suit claims GPS, location-based services, and crash and theft detection all owe the patent some due, so it’s likely Hindman & Co. will start swarming all sorts of businesses if they can wrestle a settlement free from XM and Sirius.
by Adena Schutzberg on 03/20 at 06:40 AM |
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Reuters apparently broke the story (press release found elsewhere), but there’s much speculation still afoot. Wall Street 24/7 notes:
Analysts think that the new search tech, which will be available to run on most US mobile phones with browsers, will help push Yahoo! ahead of Google (GOOG) on the handset platform. “This is not a knock on Google per se, but Yahoo has taken that a very specific starting point—your town or neighborhood,” said Gartner analyst Mike McGuire. It is, of course, a big knock on Google. If the Yahoo! product is so much more relevant, the Google competition is not going to be used.
You need an Internet enabled phone for the new oneSearch (I think it’s in gamma) to work and I could find no details (in an albeit quick search) on how location is determined. Further, Yahoo wants users to compare its offering head to head with Google’s and offers a (13.5 Mb!!) PDF that compares the two.
by Adena Schutzberg on 03/20 at 06:31 AM |
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