The online mapping business is shifitng away from Yahoo! Local to Google Maps essentially. Yahoo seems to slowly going down the gurgler?
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Increased Availability of GPS on Mobile Phones Drives Consumption of Navigation and Other LBS
SAN FRANCISCO — With GPS available on more new mobile devices, consumer demand for location-based services (LBS) such as navigation is growing, according to Telephia, a service of The Nielsen Company, and the world’s largest provider of syndicated consumer research to the telecom and mobile media markets.
In its second quarter report on mobile applications, Telephia also reported that:
Approximately 13 million mobile consumers downloaded a mobile application on their phone.
Of the $118 million in revenue that downloadable mobile applications such as LBS, weather applications, chat/community, and personal organization tools generated during Q2 2007, LBS represented 51 percent.
Networks In Motion (NIM)—an LBS navigation publisher for products including Verizon Wireless’ VZ Navigator—secured a 27 percent share of carrier revenue from mobile applications and leads all mobile application publishers. Telenav Mobile followed with a 15 percent share of carrier revenue and is another LBS navigation publisher.
While location-based services deliver highly personalized offerings such as friend-finding and other location-aware features, navigation represents the lion’s share of revenue. Moreover, favorable carrier deck placement for LBS applications and the bundling of navigation services with data packages have contributed to record high downloads.
“With consumer awareness increasing, there is enormous potential for even greater LBS growth, especially since Telephia research indicates that there are approximately 130 million GPS-capable handsets in the U.S. alone, and growing,” said Doug Antone, president and CEO of Networks In Motion. “Networks In Motion is committed to remaining an LBS leader by continuing to create compelling mobile phone applications that consumers can benefit from on a daily basis.”
LBS applications command a healthy price premium compared to other downloadable mobile applications. The average price per month for an LBS application is $9.23, as compared to a range of $3.82-$5.41 for weather applications, sports, wallpapers/pictures, etc. (see Table 1). The selling price for LBS applications is roughly 180 percent of industry average. However, overall consumer penetration for mobile applications hovers around five percent, as compared to penetration rates of 7-13 percent for other downloadable content like games, ringtones and premium SMS.
“There are hurdles that LBS publishers face, most notably the relatively low incidence of application downloads when compared to other mobile data activity. Many consumers may not realize the utility of a navigation application on their mobile phone until they use it,” said David Gill, Director of Mobile Media, Telephia. “However, Nokia’s bid to buy NAVTEQ for $8.1 billion is a very positive sign for the market and validates the strength and potential of LBS.”
Table 1: Average Price Paid by Consumers for Mobile Applications (U.S.)
Mobile Application Average Price Paid
LBS $9.23
Weather $3.82
Sports $4.58
Wallpapers/Pictures $3.29
Music $4.99
Maps/Directions $3.95
Personal Organization Tools $5.41
Source: Telephia Mobile Application Report, Q2 2007
Thursday, October 04, 2007
DIsplays for the Mobile Web
The Ken Werner at InsightMedia published this very insightful article about the "display" issues handicapping internet content accesses via the emerging smartphone.
I’m scheduled to give a presentation later today at the Mobile Web Americas conference here in Orlando on displays for Mobile Web applications, and I spent yesterday listening to reports of mobile standards developments, mobile web browsers, mobile search engines, mobile business models and mobile advertising strategies. Symantec has a mobile web security suite for the Windows Mobile platform and will soon come out with a version for Symbian.
There’s general agreement that LBSs (location-based services) will be a big business opportunity, and one that’s getting a lot of attention is location-based search. That is, the phone knows where it’s located via GPS or other means, and tells you where the nearest ATM or cholesterol-laden hamburger can be found. The feeling in the mobile search community is that the regular Web is much better at finding a hotel in Hong Kong or an HDTV from a national retailer than it is at helping you find a near-by place to repair your shoes. The vision is that mobile search can plug this huge gap in the Net. A talk by Alex Muller, CEO of GPShopper, summarized the position well. It’s title? "The Future of Retail; Why Mobile Matters Most for Local Search." Of course, wireless providers have to convince themselves there’s a way to make money out of this, and that may be on the verge of happening.
Another Mobile Web app is geotagging, in which a location tag is automatically used in an application. One possibility is to label each photo taken with the handset’s camera with the GPS-derived location of the photo, and then place flags on a Google map to show where each photo was taken.
A recurring theme at Mobile Web was the gymnastics mobile browsers, such as Opera Mini, Bitstream’s ThunderHawk, Nokia’s S60, and Microsoft’s mobile browser, must perform to deliver versions of an arbitrary website to all devices. This was tied to a still somewhat controversial philosophical position: "There is only one Web." That is, a mobile device should be able to see all of the sites a PC can, and not be limited to sites designed specifically for mobile platforms and (perhaps) designated as mobile sites....
At the heart of this debate, and of the ingenious developments of the mobile browser creators, is the difficulty of presenting full web pages on small displays. The new generation of mobile browsers do this remarkably well, but they are still dancing bears. It’s amazing that they dance at all, even if they don’t dance really well.
The problem is that with today’s mobile handset displays - and this year, for the first time, the display with the largest market penetration is, according to DisplaySearch, a 2.0-inch QVGA display - is that there just aren’t enough pixels and inches to go around for a fully satisfying web-browsing experience.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
A short story on Panoramio
Panoramio Beautiful Geo-Images (blog)
"To see our small project grow from its birth for year and means has been a hallucinating experience, with this step and the continuous support of the users, we hoped that it grows still more." (translated from spanish by Google) - Jose, Joaquin and Eduardo, May 31, 2007
Eduardo's spainsh Blog - Look him up on via Google and you can get a translation too! (Eduardo writes Panoramio's Changes/Innovations Blog)
September 20th, 2007 by Eduardo Manchón
Yesterday 300,000 new photos from Panoramio were added to Google Earth, that means that the total number of photos in Google Earth is 2 million right now.
August 21st, 2007 by Eduardo Manchón
Good news! Finally photos up to ID 2,900,000 have been added to Google Earth. This means that more than 500,000 new photos have been added to Google Earth and this is the biggest update we ever did. Now the total number of photos from Panoramio in Google Earth is 1,7 million. Next update will be around September 20th.
June 27th, 2007 by Eduardo Manchón
Yesterday around 200,000 new photos were added to Panoramio’s layer inside Google Earth. Now the number of photos from Panoramio in Google Earth is around 1,2 million. With some exceptions, photos up to ID 2,000,000 have been included. This means around 2/3 of all photos uploaded to Panoramio up to this ID have been sent to Google Earth (e.g. photo with URL: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1892099 has ID: 1,892,099).
If your photo has a higher ID than 2,000,000 you need to wait some weeks until the next update, expected for middle July, that will be larger and I hope will help catch on the delay.
June 27th, 2007 by Eduardo Manchón
Only three months ago we announced that Panoramio had reached one million photos. Today I am very happy to write that the number of photos has doubled and reached 2 million.
May 31st, 2007 by Eduardo Manchón
We are very (and we mean very) happy to announce that Panoramio will be acquired by Google.
April 24th, 2007 by Eduardo Manchón
Finally the new update is done. We sent to Google Earth a selection of photos up to ID: 1,710,000. Approximately 3/4 of the photos uploaded to Panoramio were sent to Google Earth. Thas is almost one million photos (973,949), the double number of photos than the previous update that reached ID: 655,000.
February 17th, 2007 by Eduardo Manchón
Today Panoramio’s layer at Google Earth was updated. Previously there were 80.000 photos from Panoramio visible in Google Earth by default, now 400.000 photos are included. There is a great chance to find photos from almost every place on Earth.
The selection of the 400.000 photos included photos until ID:655.000
December 11th, 2006 by Eduardo Manchón
Official Google Blog announced last Saturday that Google Earth has added a new “Geographic web” layer that includes articles from Wikipedia, comments from GE community and photos from Panoramio.
August 25th, 2006 by Eduardo Manchón
Thomas de Lange Wenneck has a GPS attached to his camara. When he takes a photo the coordinates of the place are automatically stored in the EXIF information of the image file. Later he just needs to upload his photos to Panoramio and they are automatically located in the map. No need to map the photo manually with Panoramio’s drag and drop interface.
July 5th, 2006 by Eduardo Manchón
We were adding some new features to Panoramio the last week:
- Photos with geodata in EXIF are automatically located in Panoramio, so you don’t need to do anything but upload the photo if it has the GPS coordinates in their EXIF tags.
- Mislocated?. Suggest a new location: Since there are many people correcting wrong
November 28th, 2005 by Joaquín Cuenca Abela
He asked, I deliver.
Do you have a ton of photos that you want to show in a map? Worried your pictures will soon fade away from the home page of panoramio to some hard to find page?
Now you can restrict the photos in panoramio to those of a particular user.
October 23rd, 2005 by Joaquín Cuenca Abela
Stefan Geens suggested to publish a KML Network Link with the latest pictures of Panoramio.
I did not know what is a KML Network Link, but it sounds cool, so I looked up the documentation, and implemented a KML Network Link for Panoramio.
How does it work?
September 27th, 2005 by Joaquín Cuenca Abela
Some people have asked in the forum for a way to have Panoramio on
their site. So I went for an easier solution for all of you. I just
cooked a mini panoramio version, ready to be used on iframes outside
Panoramio.
An example is:
This is what you need to write in your site:
<iframe src=”http://www.panoramio.com/plugin.php?
lt=43.406295&ln=-2.686586&z=3&k=1″ width=”446px” height=”300px”></iframe>
Sunday, September 09, 2007
The world on your mobile?
"Geobrowsers are a stunningly effective means of visualising the planet. But they are just one part of a broader endeavour, the construction of a “geoweb” that is still in its infancy, much as the world wide web was in the mid-1990s. The web did away with many geographical constraints, enabling people with common interests to communicate, regardless of location. Yet placelessness jettisons some of the most useful features of information, which are now attracting new attention.'
"At present the most feverish excitement surrounds the combination of virtual maps with other sources of data in “mash-ups”.'
The world on your desktop
Sep 6th 2007
From The Economist print edition
"At present the most feverish excitement surrounds the combination of virtual maps with other sources of data in “mash-ups”.'
The world on your desktop
Sep 6th 2007
From The Economist print edition
Google Mobile and Maps
Berg Insight writes that the number of mobile subscribers accessing maps and downloading routs using their mobile handsets in Europe and the U.S.A. is around 4 million. Over the next ten years the number of map subscribers is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 61% to reach 43 million users in 2012.
Big names in the mobile industry are gearing up for mobile phone navigation. Nokia launched its GPS-enabled N95 for the European market this year. The U.S. has evolved further with GPS being a standard in all CDMA-handsets. Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless have attracted millions of subscribers to navigation services. Google and Yahoo! are extending their existing search and map propositions with Mobile Web 2.0 applications.
Traditionally, Google mobile and non-mobile web surfing declines in the summer months as people go on vacation. (At least in North America). This year traffic on mobile devices utilizing Google has increased 35%. Mobile devices looking at Google Maps has increased as much as 50%. This appears to point to a trend, in which people use their mobile devices for information while taking time off from work. This shows how attached people are to such devices, when they are willing to take them along on vacation.
“I think this is sort of a sign that people are becoming savvier with their mobile devices, and that there are better devices” available for the Web, while away from computers, Mayer told reporters after a presentation to marketers at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose. “The technology curve is catching up,” she told reporters after the presentation. “The phones are just better.”
The number of Google searches done on mobile devices are tiny compared to those done on PCs, but the summer increase in North America shows that people are realizing the usefulness of mobile search engines. Maps and other information can enhance the vacation experience. Getting lost or visiting uninteresting places may become a thing of the past.
Berg Insight predicts that ad-funded services will account for an increasing share of the mobile navigation market. Local search applications can open the door to new ways for businesses to target consumers. MobileCrunch reported last month that more Americans are taking their mobile devices along on vacation to access map technology.
Big names in the mobile industry are gearing up for mobile phone navigation. Nokia launched its GPS-enabled N95 for the European market this year. The U.S. has evolved further with GPS being a standard in all CDMA-handsets. Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless have attracted millions of subscribers to navigation services. Google and Yahoo! are extending their existing search and map propositions with Mobile Web 2.0 applications.
Traditionally, Google mobile and non-mobile web surfing declines in the summer months as people go on vacation. (At least in North America). This year traffic on mobile devices utilizing Google has increased 35%. Mobile devices looking at Google Maps has increased as much as 50%. This appears to point to a trend, in which people use their mobile devices for information while taking time off from work. This shows how attached people are to such devices, when they are willing to take them along on vacation.
“I think this is sort of a sign that people are becoming savvier with their mobile devices, and that there are better devices” available for the Web, while away from computers, Mayer told reporters after a presentation to marketers at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose. “The technology curve is catching up,” she told reporters after the presentation. “The phones are just better.”
The number of Google searches done on mobile devices are tiny compared to those done on PCs, but the summer increase in North America shows that people are realizing the usefulness of mobile search engines. Maps and other information can enhance the vacation experience. Getting lost or visiting uninteresting places may become a thing of the past.
Berg Insight predicts that ad-funded services will account for an increasing share of the mobile navigation market. Local search applications can open the door to new ways for businesses to target consumers. MobileCrunch reported last month that more Americans are taking their mobile devices along on vacation to access map technology.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Nikon GeoTagging - Blue2CAN Nikona Review
RedHen Systems Blue2CAN Review
By Jeff Bower (jdbower)
Blue2CAN Review by Nikonian and Jeff Bower
I recently had the pleasure of testing a RedHen Systems Blue2CAN adapter. This will connect to any Nikon 10-pin remote port (found on the D200, D2Xs, D2Hs, and similar discontinued models) and provide a Bluetooth interface to a GPS unit. If you’re looking for a refresher on GPS usage in photography, please take a look at my preceding article entitled “What is GeoTagging?”
Blue2CAN - The Product
When I first learned about the RedHen Blue2CAN I thought it was tiny but it’s even smaller in person. The Blue2CAN measures 28.5mm high by 18.3mm wide by 9.2mm thick (13.9mm thick including the 10-pin connector) and it weighs in at a whopping 7 grams - no need to get a sturdier tripod when using one! Installation couldn’t be easier: just take the 10-pin remote cap off the camera and push the Blue2CAN on. There’s a small click as it seats into place and a mostly hidden red LED flashes once, then three times rapidly a few seconds later when it’s ready to find a GPS.
Summary
The RedHen Systems Blue2CAN works very well and I would recommend it to someone who already has a BlueTooth GPS and wants as tiny a solution as possible. Battery life is acceptable and slightly better than the hotshoe GPS solutions. The biggest downside is that there is no ability to use an external remote with the unit, but there are workarounds. It also may be worth the investment of a CapKeeper to prevent the Blue2CAN from getting lost if it falls out.
Ken, the Red Hen Wizzard, took note and innovated....
As Suggested :
As Implemented - Your wish is our solution:
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