Mark Korver wrote:
> Is there a great need out there from the perspective of content
> providers for mapping capability?
I say yes...especially in Japan where the "standard definition" of
an address includes values like "3 minutes from subway X" and
every Business Meishi has a map. One (Web-)Example i made some years
ago:
http://www.stadtplandienst.de
A former citymap only for Berlin, Germany. The idea behind this
service was generated by the demand of actual data for a fast
changing town like Berlin (you know, falling of the wall and so on)
and an easy to generate URL for everybody who wants to link his
address to this service. As you can see here:
http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=aq&q=link%3Awww.stadtplandienst.de&r=&kl=XX&d0=&d1=&search.x=19&search.y=11
Altavista shows +8000 links to this server.
Now imagine this service for mobile phones, so that everybody who
publish information on a mobile interface is only one click away
from a map of the address...and coupled with the location info
of a mobile phone you can show more: Distance information,
show me XXX around my location, Time related infos like which
shop (restaurant, Gym...) is open right now...and so on.
And now imagine what the provider of such an service can do:
Gather all links (=addresses) to my site and look what kind of
information is behind this address. This provider could backlink
to the information and provide a visual landscape of a city.
But if you look how much phantasy is behind MapFan, map.yahoo.co.jp
(and how they all name their services) really is, it is depressing.
Just my 0.2 yen,
Juergen
Received on Fri May 19 12:49:20 2000