Google Maps Mobile Tracks Your Location

Boston (dbTechno) – Google Maps Mobile version 2.0 has been released and has a brand new location-tracking feature which has many consumers very excited. The new feature is called My Location and works without GPS. It figures out your position using cell towers.

Google stated that this actually works faster than GPS in that it uses the cell towers to triangulate exactly where you are. The other great thing about using cell towers is that it also works indoors. Current GPS systems which use a satellite cannot work indoors.

Google stated that they “use various algorithms to approximate your location relative to the cells nearest you. The accuracy of this information depends on how big an individual cell is. Thus, areas with a denser concentration of mobile towers allow for a more accurate My Location reading. Additionally, as our database of cell locations continues to improve, so too does the accuracy and coverage of the My Location feature.”

The service is in beta right now and not available on all models of cell phones out there. Users of the Treo 750 and 500v can try it out by heading to www.google.com/gmm.

It is expected that this will have a huge impact on how Google Maps is perceived as its popularity is going to skyrocket with this new GPS feature.

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