Bigmouthmedia search engine news: local-search

Google puts the Earth in the palm of our hands

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Google has announced the release of a Google Earth application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The application was introduced via an official Google blog and is described as achieving the dream of "being able to carry the Earth around in your pocket".

The application offers users easy access to the world of Google Earth on the go. By incorporating the functionality of the iPhone and the 3D imagery of Google Earth, it gives users the ability to move from one location to the other with the swipe of a finger, tilt the screen to change the view, and tap to zoom in and out.

The 'My Location' feature will take you to wherever you are in the real world on the map, which could prove very useful if you tend to get lost easily in unfamiliar places.

Google has also added a new layer to the Google Earth application which contains eight million photos from Panaramio, allowing users to view high-quality pictures of locations found on the map. Similarly, users can also read geo-located articles from Wikipedia. All of this lets iPhone fans take a virtual tour of a location, look at stunning pictures and read up on its history at the click of a button.

Another feature is Google Local Search, through which you can search for places, businesses and landmarks the same way you would with Google Maps.

Google stated: "With Google Earth you get to the full detail page for businesses, so you can get reviews, photos, user content, business hours, and other useful information."

Google has also added a "search near me" feature giving users the ability to find businesses in close proximity to their current location without having to find it on the map first. This useful addition means finding the nearest cinema, pub or restaurant is made easy.

The Google Earth application for the iPhone/iPod Touch is free and available to download now in 18 languages and 22 countries.

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Spain says hola to Google Street View

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Google Maps and Google Earth users can now benefit from Street View imagery covering the four major cities in Spain. Google has added Street view coverage for Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville just two weeks after a similar initiative with the six largest cities in France.

Google Street View arrived in Europe to celebrate the 95th anniversary of Le Tour de France, allowing Google users to ride the 2008 Tour route and feel like part of the race from their very own living room.

Now, Google users can also tour Spanish landmarks like La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, or the newly constructed 4 Torres that rule Madrid's skyline.

Bigmouthmedia's intrepid reporters managed to get the first photos of the Street View spiders in Edinburgh in July, while many others spotted the cars equipped with 360-degree cameras and GPS receivers in various other locations in the UK.

The service has drawn criticism from many due to its potential to breach privacy and data protection laws. However, the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK privacy watchdog, gave the all-clear to Google after examining its innovative technology to blur faces and registration plates.

Although there is no official confirmation yet for the public release of StreetView imagery in the UK, it's expected to happen before the end of 2008.

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Google drives on with Street View expansion

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Street View may have attracted some negative attention from the press, but its drivers certainly seem to be looking on the bright side.

While Google continues to expand its grasp on the internet with a new browser and index the world at large by archiving old newspapers online, it's easy to forget that it's also quietly getting a good picture of the UK. The Google Street View cars are still trundling about, mapping the country bit by bit.

Despite the task being behind schedule due to bad weather, cars are still being spotted in York, Bristol, Sheffield and Edinburgh. Another one of the most recent sightings, and snaps of, a Google car was shot in Glasgow, and shows what appears to be cheerful Google driver despite the drizzle.

The Google car's equipment can only scan when the sky is not overcast and it's not raining. So, when the weather turns bad, the hardware has to be covered - presumably a recurring problem for the team in the rainy streets of Scotland.

The task may be taking a little longer than first anticipated, but that only seems to have encouraged interest from the public at large. There is even a group on flickr dedicated to the tech filled cars. York and Sheffield are the most popular areas on the group at the moment, and some happy snappers have even managed to capture photos of the drivers having a little meet-up for a chat.

Rampant privacy concerns seem to have died down recently, possibly due to public acceptance of the face blurring technology that Google promises to apply. Maybe the UK will see a reprieve from what appears to be an early onset of winter, and if so we can expect to see the streets of Glasgow online in all their glory at the hands of Google sooner rather than later.

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Google Earth helps get gold

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Here's a Google fan that's a true winner. Kristin Armstrong, one of the Olympic competitors that helped the Untied States finish with 36 gold medals this year, has revealed how she used Google Earth to map out her Beijing cycling route using a GPS to record elevation that helped propel her into Olympic victory.

While training in China in December 2007, the athlete used her husband's GPS to capture the various points of elevation on the route before returning home to Idaho and using Google Earth to map it out. Tracing the course from home, Armstrong then used the information to track down a similar route closer to home on which she could train.

Not only did Google Earth help her view the course from above, but Armstrong further touts its high points, enthusing that "It was also very nice to be able to show family members and friends the course from the excellent satellite views presented by Google Earth."

So it's official: Google aids family bonding.

Joking aside, it's clear that Google's Maps and Earth tools have proved invaluable for many people, not least Olympic athletes who happened to need a map for their award-winning bike race. The less Olympian of us can still experience the full potential of Google Maps, combining requests for such establishments as hairdressers and eateries and discover how to get to these places in the simplest way possible.

And with Google's 3D mapping tool, Google StreetView, having completed over a year's tenure in the US, planning travel routes has become easier than ever.

The interactive manner and design of Google StreetView is perfect for getting directions as its 3D photography duplicates the sensation of standing there in the street yourself. This means that users - particularly drivers - can feel much more confident about travelling to places they're unfamiliar with.

The popularity of Google Earth - even before StreetView boosted it further - is a worldwide phenomenon and it's hardly difficult to see why. Google's innovative software usually works a treat, is simple to use and allows you to see parts of the world that would've been impossible otherwise.

Best of all, StreetView will be appearing in the UK soon. Several weeks ago, a Google StreetView car snapped photos of starstruck bigmouths whilst on its travels and, despite controversy over privacy issues, we here at bigmouthmedia are looking forward to it.

So not only does Google stop you getting lost but it helps win gold medals. Now, if only Google could find a way to make it sunny in the UK, we'd all be happy.

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Public concern over Google Street View cars continues

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:00:00 GMT

With sightings of the Google car spreading across Scotland - the mobile camera has been spotted in Aberdeen, Inverness and Ullapool recently - a number of people across the country seem keen to voice their concerns.

Still top of the agenda is a worry about a lack of privacy. After one American gentleman was caught on camera entering an adult bookshop and one man was snapped looking as if he was in the middle of breaking and entering, the public seems to be concerned that the car will spot them up to no good or in an embarrassing situation. If you do find yourself the star of a Google Street View photo, you can ask for your face or number plate to be blurred out - although not everyone thinks this offers a suitable level of anonymity.

Some people are less worried about themselves than they are about the implications these photos may have for children. They have suggested that by flicking through street view photos, child abusers could determine specific areas that children play in and then target them in real life. This warning is rebuked by others who say that as the Google car drives around during broad daylight if it can find children then anyone could. Some even reverse the argument by saying that Google's addition to it mapping service would allow worried parents the opportunity to seek out any potential troublemakers in their area.

Whilst there have been plans to try to ban the car from taking photos in UK, none have come to fruition, at least not permanently. Despite Google's reputation as the king of the internet, the car found out that it isn't above the law as it was given a ticket in London.

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YouTube adds geosearch

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:00:00 GMT

It's something we've all done - gone on to YouTube, searched for "Paris" and instead of being presented with a list of Miss Hilton's music videos, a load of videos relating to the French capital appear. Does this mean that poor unsuspecting Francophiles are sometimes confronted with the heiress when they're least expecting it? Well, now there's a new feature to help them search more efficiently.

Around a year ago the option to geotag videos as they were uploaded was introduced - so the site knew where the video came from - but there was no way to do anything with that information on YouTube. Google Earth, however, has allowed users to search for YouTube videos that were geographically relevant for a while now.

Now, if you search for "Paris" on YouTube, on the initial page of results a little box appears at the top of the list with the option to see only videos from that location; it's a bit like when you search for "Paris" in Google and get a map of the city above the links to related sites.

If you click on this YouTube link, you will be taken to a page with a map (in case you're searching for a town with two locations - YouTube thinks Montrose is in Texas rather than Angus) with videos tagged to this location. You also have the option to refine your search for that location, so you can search for videos to do with Hilton in Paris and you get things such as 'Bouncing Balls Off Paris Hilton' (someone throwing tennis balls against the wall outside the hotel, of course) returned. It doesn't seem to work completely efficiently as of yet, as videos of the hotel heiress seem to sneak through even though some clearly state they're filmed in LA.

Not every location is set up to appear like this yet and there doesn't seem to be a clear reason why. For example, Newcastle (population slightly more than a quarter of a million) doesn't show up but Elgin (population around 25,000) does. Newcastle also returns around nine times more videos than Elgin's 4,000 videos.

Earlier this week The Wall Street Journal announced that YouTube's users now watch its videos more than one billion times most days. It's little improvements like this, along with features such as Gordon Brown answering questions set by the public, that sees YouTube continuing to grow in popularity.

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Up close with the Google Street View Spiders

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Despite the concerns over Google Street View privacy practices, Google has sent its fleet of diesel spiders to crawl the European cities and roads.

Earlier this week, we reported Google cars being spotted around the UK. Today, we are excited to offer photographic evidence of our own that the cars have been snapping photos near the bigmouth headquarters in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The cars are equipped with cameras, able to take 360º photos while moving at a normal speed, a GPS receiver that matches each photo with a geographical location and a laptop which apparently could help to check the quality of the images and control the basic setup of the equipment.

The first launch of Street View imagery in Europe has been the Tour de France route. Have you ever dreamt of traversing the challenging L'Alpe-d'Huez without collapsing along the way? Now, the yellow jersey is a click away.

The controversial mapping service stirred some resentment on the other side of the pond, and it looks like it's set to do that same here - despite assurances from Google that privacy is a top concern. The search giants blur faces of any individuals featured in their Street View photos, but the blurring technique is lacking for some.

What's more, the differing laws on UK shores mean that what is acceptable in the US isn't always acceptable here and Google may find the images it's busy collecting won't be useful until all privacy issued have been resolved. One the other hand, we're quite enjoying being on the other side of the camera here at bigmouthmedia.

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Google Maps Mobile gets voice search for BlackBerry users

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Google Maps Mobile now features voice search capability for BlackBerry - that is, if you own a C 8110, 8120 or 8130 BlackBerry model and live in the US.

Already a highly useful free mobile application, Google Maps Mobile has now been enhanced to enable users to simply speak their query into the phone instead of having to enter it manually.

This new experimental service is effectively an amalgamation of the existing Google Maps Mobile service combined with the free Goog-411, a directory assistance speech recognition service that was launched last year.

Still in its early days and currently unavailable in Europe, the service should prove useful to anyone in a situation in which they are unable to type - such as whilst driving and using a hands free kit. In addition, it will be handy when the name of the business or location being searched for is too long to be typed, or when the user is not sure of the exact spelling of the place they are looking for.

However, voice search on Google Maps Mobile is still in its experimental stages and therefore not up to its full compatibility yet, even with the extremely limited number of devices that the service supports. Owners of BlackBerry Pearl 8130, for instance, seem to be reporting particular difficulties.

Until now Google was the last of the major providers to offers users "voice search" capabilities on its map service. However following the amount of training and development that Goog-411 has undergone since its initial release, it is also liable to be one of the more robust voice processing systems available for mobile users.

How well it will compete with the likes of the existing voice search enabled maps for RIM handsets, like Yahoo's Vlingo integrated oneSearch or Windows Live Search 411, remains to be seen. Windows Live Search's offering, for example, was released just last year and already provides extras such as local fuel prices, movie times, and various other search functions in addition to simple directions and maps.

What does seem certain however is that this will be just the start of a wider scale roll out of the service and is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Google's integration of voice search into its mobile services.

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Google StreetView travels to the UK

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:00:00 GMT

How would you feel if a picture of your home suddenly popped up on Google? Well that could soon become a reality with Google's StreetView camera cars being spotted snapping photos around the UK recently in places such as Cardiff, Birmingham, Middlesbrough, Leeds and Edinburgh.

A Google spokesperson told The Telegraph: "We're taking photos to bring the StreetView product to Europe, including driving in the UK, ... Our users have been asking for the service ever since we launched in the US and we're very excited about bringing it to Europe."

Online debates focusing on the privacy issues of such a move have already sprung up, but Google has stated that it will be respecting local privacy laws and will also be applying automated face-blurring to the photos, so you don't have to worry about looking your best if the car passes by.

Worries concerning the enforcement of privacy laws for StreetView were investigated by a bigmouth reporter last year, however, Google's global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer made it clear at the time that the designers have devised a simple process that allows anyone to contact Google to have images removed. The public may also be relieved to know that the Google cars are not particularly discreet and are easily spottable by passersby.

A business minded use for StreetView has popped up in the form of real estate tie-ins. An example of this is when Trulia integrated StreetView with their property searches in April. This could be great for buyers that have little time to look at the area surrounding properties, as you can read the "amazing views" In the description the take a peek at StreetView to see if the location lives up to its claims.

The US has been a massive testing ground for Google application, with stories detailing incidents such as StreetView cars entering private property not being too uncommon to the blogsphere. These teething problems should hopefully mean that the UK avoids such hassles and, although no time scale has been given as to when this will become live, our curious bigmouths are eager to see a ground level, 360 view of our offices.

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Google making more inroads into mobile maps with Tele Atlas

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Google has signed a five-year deal with mapping company Tele Atlas that will see mapping data from almost 200 countries shared on Google's online and mobile applications.

Google's main mapping programs, Google Maps and Google Earth, have fascinated online users for years now. However, it's the enhancement that Tele Atlas will make to Google's mobile mapping capabilities that is proving the most captivating for mobile web fans.

The deal, which was announced on Monday, could see Google and its upcoming Android mobile software in a much better position to rival market leader Nokia's Navteq mobile navigation service - at least, when Android is finally released later this year.

In January 2007, a prophetic bigmouthmedia reporter explored the possibility of Google Maps for mobile eclipsing satellite navigation systems in popularity and since this time, much has happened to corroborate this early hypothesis.

The rapid success of the iPhone, for example, has meant that Google Maps mobile usage increased sharply after its release in July 2007. And in December, Google Maps teamed up with popular sat nav firm TomTom, enabling users to search for and send business addresses direct from Google Maps to a TomTom portable device.

Interestingly, Tele Atlas has just been acquired by TomTom, with the sat nav company only recently having received approval from the European Union form the merger.

So will we see a new frontier in mobile maps search as Google and Nokia go head to head? According to Information Week, it's less likely than it seems, as Nokia-Navteq appears to target pedestrian directions and Google-Tele Atlas is more focused on automotive GPS.

However, with Google creeping ever further into the mobile sphere, existing market leaders like Nokia are certain to want to make their products as competitive as possible in the face of its approaching might.

Last week, Nokia bought the remaining shares in Symbian, making the British mobile software firm open source through the establishment of the Symbian Foundation. This move clearly seems to anticipate the entrance of Google Android into the mobile software market, in an effort to protect Symbian's majority share - currently, it's found on over two thirds of mobile handsets globally.

Nokia has also just signed a deal with Orange, with the aim of signing up another 10 million mobile maps users by 2010. So while Google might be able to count on its established online map user's transfering their habits to the mobile realm, they will certainly have a lot to contend with in the form of the Finnish mobile firm.

What's certain, however, is that the advances in mobile mapping indicate great things for the future of the mobile internet - and really could mean the end of more traditional sat nav devices, as bigmouthmedia predicted all those months ago.

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