Mozilla be launching Geode - Browsers get Local
News has, that Mozilla will be launching a Firefox add-on, called Geode, that will enable the browser to enable localized content.
This is again, one of the signs that we’re moving towards a more local web, with even the major players (Google, Yahoo, Apple) tooling up to provide and handle with geolocation information with software like Gears, open location databases and GPS enabled devices like the iphone and Android.
Having a browser that is location aware, enables a lot of possibilities including context-awareness (personalized, localized) features. Above all it should increase relevance, for example in Search, providing locally relevant results (hmm, wait, wasn’t google supporting these guys? 
).
Mozilla Labs is doing cool stuff lately. their Ubiquity tool is a good example of this. We’ll have to wait till tomorrow for more news about Geode. In the mean while you can take a look at the website of VentureBeat where they show some early screenshots. I don’t have a clue how the tool exactly will be working, but it does remind me a bit of Fire Eagle. Now will this plugin also change the way we use local?
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Mobile Maps get updated with Streetview and walking directions
Some of you may have read it elsewhere. Google is announcing StreetView and walking directions for Google Maps mobile!
Combine all of these features together with the MyLocation feature they introduced earlier and there is no way you can miss that specific restaurant with that 5-star review anymore. You got location-based services using Cell-ID, a top notch review, you got Streetview to show you the place and Google even provides you the walking directions on how to get there. Google Maps Mobile really is becoming some sort of personal navigator.
Now I’m thinking, maybe we should think of a way to measure that we actually visited a restaurant because of a specific review (=offline conversion) in Google Maps. Google Mobile coupons anyone?
You can checkout the youtube video from Google:
Location-based services now hotter than hot?
Location-based services are hot. Now hotter than before. Because Google just launched their Geolocation API.
This is what you can call the pre-web3.0 era. Small startups trying to provide even the smallest semantic web like services online. Providing location-based services, opening up their programming code, Developing APIs for the developers to use and create even greater software by mashing up code of several services.
Now with Google opening up their geolocation API it opens new possibilities. Apparently they’ve gathered quite some data by now from CellIDs and GPS devices to have a database that is consistent enough to provide these kind of services. They also state that they will provide more services in the near future based on WiFi access.
What does this mean in general for software or services we are going to see?
Well imagine opening up your browser or software application on your mobile phone or laptop and do a search for restaurants. No need to fill in where you are, the software will determine this using the geolocation API.
Most phones nowadays are able to determine the Cell ID, the ‘zone’ you are in with your mobile phone. No GPS needed. Although it’s not as accurate of course. It should do the trick while looking for a restaurant or any nearby service.
Now let’s combine this, do a mashup and make it all context-aware; context-awareness is a topic I’ve been working on during my internship at the Netherlands institute for applied scientific research.
You are hungry, it’s around 7pm, all your appointments for this business trip are done it’s just that entry in your calendar left with some old friends of yours.
Your mobile or wearable device with a nifty piece of software is aware of all this, it has a built in calendar, it has a contact list, it is able to determine location. it knows your appointment says ‘diner’, yet location is undecided.
Context-aware applications are able to provide you with direct access to the best restaurants in your vicinity based on your preferences (profile) and that of your friends. Let them know right away, by either calling them (their contact info is presented to you right away, because it is aware!) or use intention broadcasting (a new kind of description introduced to me at mobile 2.0 europe by startup Zipipop )
This is the future!
Got interested? You can find the exact specifications of the geolocation API here.
If you are not familiar with the semantic web, a good start is to check Wikipedia, and especially this ReadWriteWeb article here. For context awareness start with Wikipedia.
