Google’s My Location has really milked the media machine this week, certainly an accomplishment for incorporating a decade-old technology into Google Maps. Sure, there’s bound to be some confusion and ignorance from writers and readers alike, but I was floored by some of the reactions. How ’bout this headline from Om Malik: With Google’s My Location, Who Needs A GPS? Gee, maybe anyone who wants to get accurate routing (navigation)? Cell-ID positioning works fine for local search (read: finding the nearest Starbucks) in densely populated areas where accuracy can be as good as 500m, but in suburbs and rural areas where cell towers are spread out, it could be closer to kilometers. Countless wireless carriers and application developers have attempted to leverage this technology with little success due to its low accuracy.
I subscribe to Minyanville’s Buzz & Banter ticker and my jaw dropped when I read a post this morning from options analyst Jon Najarian titled Google Developing Mobile Competitor to GPS: “What isn’t GOOG going to own going forward? Reports on sites like VNUnet.com say the search giant is developing a competing mobile navigation system to tap the multi-billion dollar GPS market.” Really? Apparently even the Street analysts are blinded by the Google Machine into believing that everything they announce is homegrown and/or new. Yikes.
Lest you think I’m completely sour grapes on this, using cell-ID will be a useful supplement to GPS since it works indoors, uses less battery power, and has a faster “fix” time. Same will happen with WiFi positioning. Nice feature, but please put down the Kool-Aid, everyone.
