G Maps Contin'd: (near) Real Time Traffic

[T0PS3O]

It's here.

http://labs.google.com/ridefinder?z=...%2C%20DC&src=1

Called 'Ride Finder'. Tracks (mostly 5 minutes old data) shuttles and cabs in certain cities in the US. Based on that you can give the right people a buz and get a ride fast.

We'll soon (my guess) find a Google GPS module in googlestore which you put in your car or hang on yuor keyring so everyone can see online where you are.

Just look up in Paris' diary the GPS reference codes of her fit mates, do a route find on google maps based on their real time location and off you go

On a more serious note: realtime traffic data isn't far off anymore!

So you ca now Google your night out from start to finish. Research which pizza you want on .com. Find restaurants that do them on maps.g. Find a ride near yuo on ride finder. Ring them up (find their number via Ride Finder). Go there and eat the pizza. Then go out to a bar (having printed out the itinerary from maps.g.com) and finally crawl home pissed.

[T0PS3O]

Wow! It even tells you how many cabs are available as in whether someone is in it or not. I refreshed after a few minutes and they indeed moved about the place and where prior to refreshing 27 were available, now 20 were empty and looking for passengers. Cool stuff!

[Arnie]

With UK and Germany following this year.
That's the G target.

[LinkBliss]

MS MapPoint got a lot of buzz with the recent WSJ coverage of Bill's Think Week and his having reviewed a paper called Virtual Earth. I wonder how much that paper's and Google's vision for mapping services overlaps.

Eric

[digitalpoint]

It's neat, but not terribly useful... What *would* be useful (and make Google a lot of money) would be to sell the GPS enabled "black box" for installation into cars, and let people/companies track their own cars. Could be a rental car agency or parents wanting to know where their kids are.

[tehwebmaster]

I see this as a public stunt - more of a 'what we have', not, this is a useful tool. It keeps Google in your ear... They now have local maps, and satellite maps, and now this for you to use...people one day will go "i want to see where the closest italian restaurant is in "city" that I am visiting next week...oh, i'll use google" etc...

Great idea digital - that would be cool...and a small subscription each month could make them a little revenue. They could then add a search feature - search via license plate etc....

[T0PS3O]

Originally Posted by tehwebmaster

I see this as a public stunt - more of a 'what we have', not, this is a useful tool.

That's with most of the Lab stuff actually.

It is indeed a first step to what could (will) become big.