That title won’t make any sense to you if you don’t like The Beach Boys, but today’s post is all about maps.
I don’t remember the last time I actually unfurled a real map, so I thought it might be handy to re-investigate the cool mapping tools which are helping businesspeople get around every day. If you want to get from A to B, there’s now practically nowhere in the world where you can get as lost as my Dad regularly did in our Austin Maxi. You have at least four big-name options:
All offer an overlapping set of useful features. What started as the simple business of presenting maps to the reader now invariably includes satellite pictures and printable directions. (I won’t tell you where, but my Dad of Austin Maxi driving fame is visible in one satellite photo. He’s a fairly large chap).
Even printing out single pages of maps is a bit old hat today. Many mobile phones now also include a GPS chip- my HTC TyTN and Samsung’s sexy new Omnia both feature global positioning; so you can either use your phone as a replacement for a Satellite Navigation system in your car, or simply pound the streets on foot and still never get lost.
I was also lucky enough recently to interview Harold Goddijn, the founder of the TomTom satnav company, and he let me into some of the even smarter things he’s up to. In future, TomTom’s won’t rely on (expensive) traffic data from roadside cameras. Rather, the community of TomTom owners will be able to elect to transmit their current speed and location back to TomTom HQ. This real-time traffic data will inform other TomTom users about real traffic conditions, moment by moment.
The future of the mapping business, and some of the best business products to come out of it, are all based on this collaboration and/or collecting of data from multiple sources and overlaying them together geographically. For a lovely example, check out Panoramio, which collates photos from users all around the world.
Tools like MapMe and PushPin will, if successful, allow everyone to manage their own maps, and add annotations. That could mean the musty old Sales Map of Great Britain goes out of the window. You’ll simply be able to overlay sales data, customer segment information, salesperson areas and duties etc. across a digital map- and then extract all the strategic data you could possibly want.
Location-based services is a truly exciting up-and-coming business area; not least now that mobile phones are functional enough to display maps and location-based information when it’s needed most- on the move. If you haven’t got a smartphone yet, try and bag one. Not only will you never get lost again, but you’ll also get some of these smart new services thrown in, too.
Filed under: mobile, sales, technology | Tagged: driving directions, GPS, HTC TyTN, location-based services, MapMe, mapping, maps, microsoft live search maps, multimap, Panoramio, PushPin, run a business, Samsung Omnia, satellite navigation, satellite picture, satnav, start your own business, streetmap, TomTom
