Opt Out of Google Street View?
The guys over at Google Sightseeing noticed that the Google Streetview camera in Fairbanks, Alaska apparently got covered over with plastic bags, obscuring some of the images that were shot.
This led to speculation that some enterprising residents had perhaps purposefully obscured the cameras out of privacy concerns - though, that seems moderately unlikely to me since I doubt most people know what the car even is when it’s tooling around, shooting photos of places. (more…)
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 05/08/2008 | Permalink | 
Email
| 
Print
Possible Related Posts
Trackback | Comments (0) | Comments RSS |
Filed under: Google, MapsGoogle-Maps, privacy, Street View, Surveillance
Will Geolocation Become Ubiquitous?
Chris Messina at Citizen Agency has just blogged about how he believes that geolocation data will become ubiquitous for websites to use, and this sort of contextual information about users will form a new layer of information that will available to all internet applications.
I find myself a bit skeptical, just because geolocation data has been around for so long now, and I’ve heard people saying that it will revolutionize how information is presented to us for quite some time. This concept is nothing new, though if you look at it from the perspective that Messina has provided, it’s a fairly compelling-feeling twist as a sort of infrastructure given that could and should be incorporated in the planning and development of any given internet site — particularly social ones — at their very inception.
What isn’t plain is just how integral all the locative information could be, considering the issues of unknowable error rates involved in geolocation data (see the section on “The issue of error rates” in “Geolocation: Core To The Local Space And Key To Click-Fraud Detection“) and consumer interest group resistance to pinpointing of users’ locations based upon privacy concerns (just today there was an article on how groups are complaining to the FTC about the ease of geo-pinpointing of users of mobile devices). I wish he’d touched on those aspects in some way, although I do like the techno-evangelist spin he’s provided on location as a foundational aspect in site design.
Update: Susan Mernit, formerly of Yahoo!, also points out that security is a major concern for applications like dating sites, and that there’s consumer irritation involved with some contextual advertising.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 05/06/2008 | Permalink | Email
| Print
Possible Related Posts
Trackback | Comments (1) | Comments RSS |
Filed under: Futurism, Local Search, Maps, Mobile Searchgeographic location, Geolocation, Local Search
Google Maps Now Allows Custom Categories For Businesses
Search Engine Roundtable notes that the Google Local Business Center is allowing businesses to enter their own, custom categories. While this new functionality has been around for a few weeks now, it is an important one and addresses a major need that both Mike Blumenthal and I have highlighted previously — I recently spoke about this issue again at the SMX West session on Local Search & Blended Results. Previously, businesses could only select business categories from an unusually short list of categories. Exacerbating the issue, some businesses achieved other category associations outside of Google’s sharply limited taxonomy when their listings found in other yellow pages providers such as Superpages were absorbed into Google Maps, including the more comprehensive categories found in those other content sources.
Under the new functionality, businesses may type in custom business categories, and the interface also provides helpful potential term using the Google Suggestion Tool:
Free-form categories is a slightly unique way to address the need of businesses. Yellow pages companies have traditionally offered businesses the option of categorization under many thousands of unique categories — on the order of twelve thousand to fifteen thousand categories in some cases. However, YP companies have also carefully considered and turned down requests for additions of completely new categories in some cases, mainly due to how yellow pages are constructed — if there are too few businesses in a category it won’t make monetary sense to add it into a directory. And, if the category name is too esoteric, consumers won’t search for it anyway.
With Google’s local search operating more closely as a straight keyword search tool, businesses could associate categories with themselves that are as specific as they desire without affecting usability or cost.
In other, related news, Google has announced that YouTube videos are now integrated with Google Maps, allowing businesses to add video info to their listings.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 04/15/2008 | Permalink | Email
| Print
Possible Related Posts
Trackback | Comments (0) | Comments RSS | Filed under: Google, Local Search, Maps, Online Directories, Searching, Yellow Pages
Where’s Waldo in Google Earth
In a very clever bit of marketing, Canadian artist Melanie Coles has created a large rooftop image of the iconic character found in the popular Where’s Waldo? book series.
The image is located somewhere in Vancouver, British Columbia, and was created with the specific intention of being findable via Google Earth (warning, I have the location pinpointed in a link and geocoordinates at the end of this post). It will be a while before Waldo can be found in Google Earth (or in Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, or MS Live Search Maps, for that matter), because there is a time lag in between when satellite images and aerial photos get updated in those services — so, it could be six months to a year before the image is really findable and viewable online.
The image was created as a demonstration of a viral game for Coles’ graduation art project at the Emily Carr Institute. Her blog statement on the project says:
Popularity: 16% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 04/14/2008 | Permalink | Email
| Print
Possible Related Posts
Trackback | Comments (3) | Comments RSS |
Filed under: Google, Maps, Newsaerial-photos, Google-Earth, Google-Maps, Maps, Mapvertising, Roofvertising, Satellite-Images, Viral-Marketing, Where's Waldo
Google’s KML Becomes Industry Standard
In an example of how becoming top dog can empower a company to influence and set industry-wide protocols, Google Earth’s KML format has been declared an open standard for geographical data by the Open Geospatial Consortium (”OGC”).
It’s really great and progressive that such a large, publicly-traded company such as Google would release control of its considerable intellectual property rights and allow KML to be used by anyone.
Google’s LatLong Blog also crows a bit about how KML is “the HTML of geographic content”, and explains that KML is no longer owned by Google, but is now administrated by the OGC.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 04/14/2008 | Permalink | Email
| Print
Possible Related Posts
Trackback | Comments (0) | Comments RSS |
Filed under: Google, Local Search, Maps, technologyGoogle-Earth, KML, open standards
Google Puts News On The Map
Google has partnered with the New York Times to put news on the map — the NYT has apparently begun geotagging their news stories so that Google can associate news items with particular locations around the world. The Google Earth application can now be used to browse around a map of the world, and headlines are associated with their places of origin.
Newspapers have been very fearful of the internet and have lost revenue from their print side to free internet alternatives. But, it’s clear that embracing greater integration with interactive technologies is one viable way to remain competitive.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 04/08/2008 | Permalink | Email
| Print
Possible Related Posts
Trackback | Comments (0) | Comments RSS |
Filed under: Google, Maps, NewsGoogle-Earth, Maps, New York Times, Newspapers
Independent Contractors Excluded from Google Maps
My article on How To Get On Google Maps Without An Address pubbed today on Search Engine Land - it outlines one of the top most frustrating issues facing some small businessmen who need to have listings in directories without including their street addresses. Google Maps, by policy, does not display listings for those who do not have street addresses, so smaller providers who might actually provide the best quality service work are left out in the cold when users perform local searches. Independent contractors (like plumbers, electricians, building contractors, etc) are the most affected by this issue, but some other businesses are also impacted.
My perception is that this lack of what is something of a standard among traditional yellow pages directories is due to Google’s desire to provide best user-experience. In a map search display, does it make sense to display items which can’t be pinpointed to the map?
My opinion is that it does make sense to do so, (more…)
Popularity: 64% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 02/11/2008 | Permalink | Email
| Print
Possible Related Posts
Trackback | Comments (2) | Comments RSS |
Filed under: Google, Local Search, Local Search Optimization, Maps, Online Directories, Yellow Pagesdirectories, Google-Maps, independent contractors, Local Search, Yellow Pages
Google Sending More Traffic To Google Maps
The New York Times today reported on a recent Hitwise post by Heather Hopkins highlighting that Google was now sending about three times as many of their users over to Google Maps comparing a week ending January 6th with a year ago.
This is apparently due in part to Google recommending Google Maps instead of recommending other mapping providers in addition as it had been doing early last year. (more…)
Popularity: 49% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 01/14/2008 | Permalink | Email
| Print
Possible Related Posts
Trackback | Comments (1) | Comments RSS |
Filed under: Google, Local Search, Maps, Market DataGoogle-Maps, Local Search, Mapquest
Google Maps to Embed in New Magellan GPS
Barely one day in advance of the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show opening in Las Vegas this week, Magellan issued a press release about their next generation of GPS navigation devices, highlighting how they will come integrated with Google Maps to provide local search capabilities.
John Hanke, Director of Google Maps & Earth is quoted, saying, “We’re pleased to be partnering with Magellan to provide users with detailed, relevant local information while on the road. Magellan devices are powerful, interactive tools for navigation and discovery that serve as a cutting-edge platform for Google’s robust local search capabilities.” (more…)
Popularity: 30% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 01/07/2008 | Permalink | Email
| Print
Possible Related Posts
Trackback | Comments (0) | Comments RSS |
Filed under: Google, Local Search, Maps, technologyCES, Consumer Electronics Show, Google-Maps, GPS, Magellan
New Terrain Feature on Google Maps
The Google Operating System blog alerted us to how Google Maps quietly added a new “Terrain” button and removed the “Hybrid” button which combined Satellite and Map content. The official Google Lat Long blog reports that the “hybrid” feature can be accessed by clicking the Satellite button and the clicking on/off the “Show labels” box that appears in a dynamic drop-down.
The Terrain content can look pretty dynamic for mountain areas and other places with dramatic elevation contrasts like this area for the Grand Canyon:
I’m not sure just how valuable this is for the majority of users –
Popularity: 27% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 11/27/2007 | Permalink | Email
| Print
Possible Related Posts
Trackback | Comments (1) | Comments RSS |
Filed under: Google, Local Search, MapsGoogle-Maps, Maps, online-maps, Orienteering, Terrain
