That's the case in voting in an internal prediction marketplace within the company. Those who sit near one another vote like one another. No other factors better predicts how individuals vote. Of interest to me: Googlers change location on average every 90 days. I wonder how long it takes for the local geography to get into their blood?

From an E-Tech presentation covered in Wired

Microsoft Research shows off its latest idea each year at TechFest. Among those of geo-interest this year were:

LucidTouch allows users to touch an alternate location to activate a touch screen. The demo showed users touching the back of a display. The big leap? Such a system gets around the fat finger problem - where a big finger hides what is of interest, or is not "fine enough" to zero in on a button or area of interest.

Another technology, unnamed, taps into cell phones, armed with accelerometers, to capture information about the commute - where potholes are, when and where horns are honked. The data is sent to a server for use by drivers to find the best route. I guess it could also be used to indentify where roads need to be repaired.

- InfoWorld