All posts by Stefan Geens

Reviews

Navizon lets you be geo-social

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A free mobile application for Symbian/WinMob5 devices called Navizon gets some clever new functionality, and it is now just begging for Google Earth integration.

The background: Navizon uses GPS, wifi and cellular signals to position you geographically inside a peer-to-peer network with other Navizon users, where you then get to be all geo-social with one another: You can track buddies (with their permission), or search Google Local, for example.

But now there’s a new version and a new feature: Geotags. No, these are not the geotags we know and love on Flickr; these “geotags” are messages written by Navizon users that are posted to a physical location instead of to a URL (at least metaphorically).

For example: You have an atrocious meal at a restaurant, and decide to warn people away: You write a message on your mobile device, tag it (√Ü la Technorati) and post it to Navizon’s server then and there. Anybody else plugged into the network and passing nearby will from now one be altered by it, if they are listening for the right tags. It’s a very clever idea (one that some Swedish friends have been mooting for a while), and it was only a matter of time before somebody implemented it.

So what’s still missing? The Navizon database of tags is crying out for a Google Earth network link that we all can access. These messages would also make great content for insertion in GeoUrl, and why not use the network to post phonecam pictures, both to other users nearby, and automatically geo-tagged to Flickr?

I think that in five years, when we all have our iPodGPScamPhoneMacBooklet, what Navizon offers will be commonplace, but for now, it’s an early adopters’ playground.

(Bonus nefarious uses of Navizon: Listing security codes to doors (especially useful in Stockholm), listing locations of speed traps… But it would also be an excellent tool for treasure hunts.)

(Via GIS user weblog)

Reviews

Google confirms Earth ads being tested

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adingoogle.pngSearch Engine Watch gets a spokesperson to confirm that “We are currently conducting a limited test of ads in Google Earth. We do not have any other specifics to share at this time.”

Here is what they look like. (Via Search Engine Lowdown.)

Clearly, what Google is experimenting with this time around is a kind of Adwords for Google Earth, not Adsense. Adwords are the ads that appear next to a search in Google, while Adsense is the kind of ads you get to see on a blog like this one.

If you like discussing what Google’s ad strategy might be for Google Earth, there was an interesting flurry of speculation back in November. The suggesttion then by Brian Flood was that Google Earth might someday have Adsense ads, as a way for freelance content producers to get paid for their KML.

As for whether ads in Google Earth are a good thing or a bad thing, Check out the post and comment thread on James Fee’s blog from around then.

Uncategorized

Road layers updated in US, Canada

Over on Google Earth Community, sysop PenguinOpus informs us that “The road layers have been updated in a number of ways. Have a look in the US, in Canada, in Puerto Rico, and in the US Virgin Islands to see some of the enhancements.”

I don’t immediately notice a difference in appearance (but then, I’ve never looked very closely at the roads). There definitely seems to be a difference in the manner that the roads layer shows up, however, and this change probably matches the improvements for Europe back in December, which aimed to make Google Earth zippier for older systems.

My system went from zippy to… zippy, so if Google Earth got faster for anybody with a slowish computer, do tell.

Content

Live tracking made seamless

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3dTracking.net turns the live tracking of somebody using Maps or Earth into the seamless web 2.0 mashup experience for the masses that it should be, rather than an exploit for geeks to boast about. You, the “trackee”, will need a GPS, PDA (running Java/Symbian or Windows Mobile 5) and a connection to the net, perhaps via your mobile phone, or a hybrid of all three. Palm OS support is coming. (It also helps if your “tracker” has a Mac or PC running Google Earth somewhere, or else there isn’t much point:-)

The site promises that this will stay a free service, comes nicely packaged, and doesn’t even bother asking for your email address when you register – how enlightened is that? Premium services are in the works, presumably to allow you to see more than just the last 20 tracking positions.

I’m still waiting for somebody to track their transatlantic flight live using, for example, SAS’s in-flight wifi. If nobody does this soon I might be forced to buy myself a GPS unit:-)

[Update 23.43 UTC: A positive review from somebody who’s actually used it.]

[Update 2006-01-19: Modded up from the comments, Sergio has an interesting niche blog dedicated to GPS devices. Here is his positive review of 3DTracking. I’ll be tracking his blog…]

Uncategorized

Arctic sea ice, we hardly knew ye

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Some network links really astound with the kind of information they can convey. For example:

Örsted DTU (Technical University of Denmark) does a lot of remote sensing of the polar regions. Some of their projects monitor polar sea ice, and in fact they have a couple of very fancy java applets that shows you the extent of polar ice in real time.

arct.pngDAMOCLES (“Developing Arctic Modelling and Observing Capabilities for Longterm Environmental Studies”) tries to pin down the effects of climate change on Arctic sea ice by measuring a range of properties, both via satellite and from drift buoys. Damocles (apt name:-) is a brand new project, with barely a home page to its name, but if you dig a bit deeper, you find a network link [kml] that renders all this information about the Arctic sea ice in near real-time, with drift indicators. Wow.

Our receding Arctic icecap is a hot-button issue at the moment, and this network link is precisely the kind of contribution to the debate that science can and should make.

(Aside 1: Though 2D, there are plenty of dimensions of data portrayed by this network link; it reminds me somehow of that graphic of Napoleon’s Russia adventure highlighted by Edward Tufte.)

(Aside 2: And while you’ve got a snapshot of Arctic sea ice on Google Earth, why not complement it with the auroral activity overlays Google Earth Blog linked to last week?)

Content

Echolink

echolink.pngEchoLink is a curious hybrid — it’s VOIP for amateur radio, like a Skype for licenced ham radio stations. Base stations that are continents apart but connected via Echolink can act as repeaters, so that anyone driving within reach of one of these stations can talk to anyone within reach of any other station. In the specialized world of ham radio, it has apparently made quite a splash, with 170,000 registered users in 158 countries (according to the site).

And now comes the Google Earth network link [KMZ] that shows all the currently connected stations, live. Very cool, that. More info here. Ten-four.

(Via Ben Sutton, who explains how it comes in handy for him. There is also a Mac Echolink client.)