30.11.2007 by Zoltan

Google and mobile

There’s tonnes of buzz flying around about Google and its impending foray into everything mobile, but this little piece of news is interesting and scary in equal measure. Today they have launched a beta technology called ‘My Location‘ that uses “triangulation to provide you with approximate location information, so it will work on phones without GPS”. This is pretty big news for consumers as previously this tech was something reserved for governmental agencies and Hollywood alike.

What’s the benefit to the big G then? Well of course if they know where you are, even roughly, then they can micro-target local ads to your phone. And with the release today of figures showing that there’s over 3.3 billion mobile accounts on our little planet and 59 countries with mobile penetration over 100 percent, the big G’s obviously not in it for the goodwill.

Read more here via MIT advertising lab