GPS is everywhere these days. It is a wonderful technology that helps with many simple things and it can add a lot of value. For example, on many smartphones you can pull up Google and do a search and the search will be localized via GPS. So if you search for Thai food, the results that come up are near your current location. In my opinion that is pretty cool and elegantly helpful.
Something I never thought about was the information that can be gathered when people use their GPS. I read an interesting article about GPS navigation that details some of the metrics. See the link below for full details, but the data shows that Walmart is the company people navigate to the most, the top food choice is pizza, and the top state using GPS is Maryland. I just wonder what the Google metrics are with their GPS and searching abilities.
Other recent GPS integration areas I’ve noticed is with music. On my smartphone (Verizon Droid) I downloaded an application called Tunewiki. This app allows you to connect to the internet and show the song lyrics while a song is playing. There is also another feature called Music Maps that pulls up a Google-like map and shows you the location of people around you using the program and what song they are currently listening to. (No details on the people, just their location). I did find it interesting that someone down the street from me was listing to the same eclectic 80’s band I was.
Good thing I’ve got nothing to hide or I would be paranoid….
