The O’Reilly Where 2.0 Conference, earlier this week, featured a variety of speakers (Speaker Presentation Files), sessions, workshops and exhibitors, with many new products and announcements. The barriers to building location-based online and enterprise apps have been lowered, and the field is crowding with players. Now everyone has access to incredible amounts of data and the tools to visualize it.
- Nokia released its latest version of Ovi Maps, which marks a shift from the one-size-fits-all static bitmap maps commonly found on the web, to using Nokia’s dynamic vector-graphic maps – compatible on mobile devices or desktops.
- Google spoke about the Evolving Geoweb and announced a location aware browser partnership with Mozilla FireFox 3.5.
- My Tracks enables Android mobile phone users to record GPS tracks and view live statistics while jogging, biking, or participating in other outdoor activities. My Maps Editor for Android allows users to create and edit personalized maps from an Android mobile phone.
- Author of the Google Earth Blog talked about some of the ways to extend Google Earth beyond the way it is typically used.
- Schmap.me released a new Twitter account that retweets Twitter user comments about local restaurants and bars. It also lets Twitter users tweet their own restaurants and bar picks.
- Glympse is an Android App that lets you add a few e-mail addresses from your phone’s address book so colleagues will be able to go to a web page to see exactly where you are and see your estimated arrival time.
- Microsoft presented a new location platform it’s built into Windows 7. PhoneGap will demo its open-source platform for building location-aware apps for multiple devices using HTML and JavaScript.
- The waze Android application runs on users’ smartphones, it automatically and anonymously sends back GPS points as they drive. This data is used to build and constantly update the road grid, driving directions, road changes, traffic flow, and more.
- Yahoo’s Geo Technologies Group, launched Placemaker, a webservice, scrapes text on web pages and feeds and extracts location data from them.
Skyhook Wireless, provider of the Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) and the hybrid location system XPS, that use cell towers, Wi-Fi and GPS to provide geolocation info, today announced the Loki plug-in for Web developers. MapQuest, Flickr and WeatherBug, have all integrated Loki to auto-locate visitors.
The Loki plug-in works with all major Internet browsers and operating systems to determine the precise location of any Wi-Fi-enabled device instantly, given the user’s permission. Web developers can use visitor location information to personalize content, ease local searching, deliver localized ads and more.
Skyhook Wireless has also partnered with many leading web sites representing several content categories such as local search, photo sharing, local news and friend finding. Other Loki plug-in launch partners include:
- AllMenus.com (www.allmenus.com) – online restaurant menu directory
- BrightKite (www.brightkite.com) – location-based social network
- CitySquares (www.citysquares.com) – local city guide
- CrazyMenu (www.crazymenu.com) – nearby restaurant and menu search site
- drop.io (www.drop.io) – online private file sharing network
- Flickr (www.flickr.com) – leading photo and video sharing site
- IRL Connect (www.irlconnect.com) – location-based social network
- Krillion (www.krillion.com) – local product search engine
- Geocaching (www.geocaching.com) – worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure
- Loopt (www.loopt.com) – location-based social network
- MapQuest (www.mapquest.com) – leading online mapping and local search site
- NearbyNow (www.nearbynow.com) – local product search engine
- Outside.in (www.outside.in) – outside.in is a hyperlocal news and information service
- Trapster (www.trapster.com) – speed trap sharing network
- Praizedx (www.praized.com) – white-label local social networking platform
- RadiusIM (www.radiusim.com) – online location-based IM platform
- RedPlum (www.redplum.com) – coupon and deal search engine
- Skout (www.skout.com) – location-based social network
- TheFind (www.thefind.com) – local product search engine
- Trapster (www.trapster.com) – speed trap sharing network
- WeatherBug (www.weatherbug.com) – leading online weather site
- WorkStreamer (www.workstreamer.com) – real-time enterprise social collaboration
