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Google Local Goes Mobile 98
bigtallmofo writes "Google has added a mobile version of their local-search service to their lineup of mobile applications available from devices equipped with XHTML-enabled browsers. Previously available mobile Google applications include their mobile web and image search and their SMS service (beta) that allows users to enter their search queries and receive results via a text message. The day of receiving unsolicited coupons for your next latte as you walk by a Starbucks is one step closer."
Useful (Score:5, Insightful)
For those of us that travel a lot to disparate locations for our jobs, this is useful. I could goto Chicago and find the House of Blues as a nightclub or the Scotch and Cigar Bar at Palmer house. Converting this to use on a mobile just makes sense.
Re:Useful (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Useful (Score:2)
Re:Useful (Score:2)
I've been using it for months and shocking people with the things I "know".
Re:Useful (Score:1)
Hmmm, (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Hmmm, (Score:1)
The location parses to Windsor%2 C on according to google, and that's an unrecognizable location.
Try this instead: http://www.google.com/xhtml?q=Pizza&near=Windsor%2 C+CT&site=local&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&c 2coff=1&btnG=Google+Search [google.com]
What? (Score:5, Insightful)
What kind of crap is that?
How does google making a search page make this any closer? Especially when google is well known for their unobtrusive ads. Maybe a small ad WHEN you search but just walking by some place?
SMS and web browsing on your phone already exist. Google releasing a local search (which is sweet when used with google maps BTW) isnt going to start the spamming of your cellphone.
I suppose I have been trolled, since that sentance couldn't have been meant as much else.
Re:What? (Score:2)
Really, as an amateur cultural anthroplogist, I've found the slashdot editorial drift from Google = Cool to Google = Big Corporate Search Stooge to be really something to watch.
Re:What? (Score:2)
One of my favorite quotes from joel on software [joelonsoftware.com]: "It solves the one problem that coffee shops DON'T have, namely, advertising to peoplewho are standing right in front of the store!"
Dang, it's tiny! (Score:4, Informative)
I've got a frickin cellphone (Score:2)
I wish it could save a list of frequently used addresses for driving directions like yahoo does. It's painful keying them in with t9
Re:Dang, it's tiny! (Score:1)
Re:heh (Score:1)
Re:heh (Score:3, Insightful)
(sarcasm on)Considering what spawned from those hellish places like the horrors of Unix and Apple and so on, maybe we should all be frightened what might come from the ruins of the dark land of Google.(sarcasm off)
Seriously, the small is beautiful and better than correct or workable mindset belongs in the past with things like Xenix. We're living in better times now. We can deal with
3G Phones and restrictive access (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds really lame, and it definitely is. So even if I've got a great 3G phone with browsing capabilities, I can't access the Google Local Mobile page because my service provider limits my usage to its own pay-services.
I hope to see a change in this area. Monopoly is never good, and imagine only being able to surf on one site where your service provider sets the rules.
Re:3G Phones and restrictive access (Score:3, Informative)
Are you sure about that? Last time I had internet on my phone, the home page did take me to my provider's homepage. *However*, there was also an obscure menu item (called "Location", I think) that allowed me to type in a web address. It was a pain in the ass to type in, but it did work.
In any case, this is an SMS service, not a WAP service. Unless your provider only
Re:Dude... you got stung (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Dude... you got stung (Score:2)
You can always tell who grew up in the nice neighborhoods around here...
Re:3G Phones and restrictive access (Score:2)
Re:3G Phones and restrictive access (Score:3, Informative)
Not quite. Most (if not all, I don't know) phones on the 3 network restrict you to their own walled garden.
However, T-Mobile, Vodafone and Orange networks give you access to the whole internet. I don't know about O2 but I'm sure someone else can confirm what the status with them is.
Given this, the fact they have less base stations than T-Mobile and the switch from
Re:3G Phones and restrictive access (Score:2)
FWIW all the major networks give you full internet access via GPRS and CSD.
The only one I don't know about is 3, but I wouldn't consider them major :)
Tried using Google Mobile Once (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Tried using Google Mobile Once (Score:1)
GPRS isn't *that* slow. Google is quite responsive (one of the faster sites out there while on GPRS) and I actually find myself using my hiptop [t-mobile.com] more than my laptop. Something that fits in my pocket is a lot easier to do a quick Google search on than locating an access point, booting up/waking up the laptop, doing the search, and then shutting down/putting to
Re:Tried using Google Mobile Once (Score:2)
And the click-click-click, wait-wait-wait, damn-now-text-entry-mode-is-it-in, click, wait-wait-wait is usually a lot longer than it takes me to find an open access point.
Though I'm sure if I had an honest-to-goodness keyboard instead of twelve teeny buttons with teenier letters it would make things a little easier. But not faster.
We love to hate Google. (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I hope... (Score:3, Informative)
I don't know about all cell phone plans but most of the ones I have been under have free *in bound* SMS. So it's really irrelevant how many relevant repli
Re:I hope... (Score:3, Informative)
New name? (Score:1, Funny)
mmmmmm.. Latte (Score:1, Insightful)
and the day of me not minding a latte as I walk by a Starbucks is here!
my poor results (Score:2)
There were some others that returned poor results also - To be fair, I think pub worked well, but only showed places that actually had pub in the name. The sad thing is, this is definately a service that the business owners want to have work well, not just end users like m
Re:my poor results (Score:2)
It's also useless for searching for most businesses. "Supermarket near X" just shows businesses near X with the word "Supermarket" in the name. Other keywords like "Chinese food" or "Pizza" neglect restaurants that simply nam
Give Earthcomber a try (Score:2, Informative)
We maintain a database of locations labelled by keywords. As a user, you can create search lists containing the keywords you want to find. Then the software looks for every place nearby which is labelled by a keyword in your active search list. Simple. The keywords attached to locations are picked by the proprietors themselves, so as
Non-Americans? (Score:5, Insightful)
Does anyone have any information? Or are we going to frequently see cool new Google stuff which we can't really use to the fullest?
(If they have no plans, it might be nice for Slashdot to drop the practially dead Apache section and change this to Google so at least us non-Americans can filter it out).
Re:Non-Americans? (Score:2)
As soon as their underlying mapping system has data for the UK, the mobile edition should follow shortly.
Re:Non-Americans? (Score:2)
Re:Non-Americans? (Score:1)
Re:Non-Americans? (Score:1)
.
Don't worry (Score:4, Insightful)
Ughhh. How? The Google SMS is a service where YOU request information, and Google provides information. It's a "dumb service" Google doesn't know any more about where you are than what you tell them. If your sitting in Philadelphia and do a Googble Mobile Local search for Thai in Vegas, Google will think your in Vegas and have no clue your in Philly.
Even if a next generation of this service was "smart" and used the GPS on your phone to know where you are, there's an accuracy limit of ~150 feet, IIRC. If your in Time Square in NYC, do you have any idea how many retail businesses are within 50 yards of you? It would overwhelm users who would complain in huge numbers and it would be dropped. Despite all the grassroots FUD on this issue, it's not going to happen. To get 10 foot resolution, you need to triangulate with 12 GPS satellites. To have any chance at getting line of sight with 12 satellites, you need to be a pretty open area. GPS tracking in urban areas is always going to be pretty useless
Mobile Location Services (Score:2)
[1] Average Revenue Per User
Re:Don't worry (Score:1)
Text Messaging Just Easier (Score:5, Informative)
google text messaging rules! i use it all the time and wish i could thank them for all the time they've saved me.
Re:Text Messaging Just Easier (Score:2)
With google text messaging, however, I can fire off the request and keep walking, and get a nice little buzz in my pocket indicating some search results. With most cell phone plans it's much more practical to upgrade the text messaging plan than to add on an internet plan.
No 10 digit number? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:No 10 digit number? (Score:1)
You are silly (Score:3, Interesting)
Alternative to GPS (Score:2)
Now imagive if Google also implemented Google Local. You would NEVER have to ask for directions anywhere again. That is, until you hit a dead spot for your cell phone carrier.
sounds good to me... (Score:2)
Really, tho, Google has been a good steward of online restraint. I think they deserve the benefit of the doubt and we should applaud whatever efforts they are making into mobile space.
Woohoo! (Score:1)
Googl-age (Score:1)
Re:Googl-age (Score:1)
Re:Googl-age (Score:1)
Forget Stupid Cell Phones, Great for WiFi PDAs! (Score:1)
I made a conscious decision to get separate cell phone and PDA when I returned from overseas. I wanted my cell phone to be small enough to slip in my pocket, and having a screen big enough for WWW didn't allow that. This "Grand Unified Gadget Theory" leaves me nonplussed.
If you have a Danger Hiptop you can do much better (Score:1)
I started a project to have a rich client for Google Maps that blows this away:
http://gmap.trileet.com/
You get a full scrollable map, way better view of the search results and a map that's actually 240x160 and you can scroll for infinity.
Most full maps take less than 5 seconds to come down and you get full integration with your addressbook etc..
You'll need a developer key and unlocked device to get it for now, but as I said, this blows away any other mapping software I've seen on any other phone.
Nic
Google wins again (Score:2, Funny)
Yup, still broken... (Score:1)
First it was Google SMS... http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=124818&cid=104 66707/ [slashdot.org]
Then it was Google Maps... http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=13869 9&cid=11626545/ [slashdot.org]
And now this! I just want some friggin' pizza!
finally! (Score:3, Insightful)
Kudos to the Local team, this is a big improvement.
Observations after a short test (Score:3, Informative)
Short version:
Works great. Wish I had it years ago.
The maps need to be larger to be useful on a 320x400 screen.
The layout of the page could be optimized a bit. The Google logo at the top pushes data too far down. Google should either shrink the logo or relocate it.
Long version:
I've been looking for a service like this for a long time. I tried Avantgo [avantgo.com] for a while but it was cumbersome, and of limited use if you needed to find info on the fly. MapQuest [mapquest.com] allows you to download maps and directions using Avantgo but it doesn't work as well as Google Local.
I've alread mentioned my main criticisms of Google Local. It gives a map but seems targeted at 160x160 screens. (understandably) A larger map option would be nice as the maps are a little small to be genuinely useful IMO. You can zoom in/out and scroll around via buttons. Not as smooth as the regular Google Maps but perfectly adequate for on the road. Driving directions are always available and work great. Once you've located what you are looking for you simply select driving directions and enter your From: address. Simple and logical and it works pretty much exactly as you expect it to.
Speed of the service is fine. I have a GPRS connection (not EDGE) which isn't speedy but download speeds were satisfactory. If you have a Treo or a Tungsten type device (like me) you should have no trouble finding regular uses for the service.
SMSTerm (Score:1)
SMSTerm allows you to run a terminal over SSH. I wrote it to monitor servers from class. Its old, but still works. I use ICQ's SMS gateway. Get it at http://freshmeat.net/projects/smsterm/ [freshmeat.net]