Navigation made easy
Posted on November 9, 2010 by admin
Yesterday I was driving to Kennedy Space Center near Orlando. I say “near Orlando” because if you use a GPS forget finding Nasa Visitor Center on your map using Orlando as a city. So I thought checking their address on Google would help me set-up my GPS – unfortunately they give you directions and no address.
GPS wants an address starting with a Zip code or City and Street name.
Digging a bit further – I found out Kennedy Space Center is located in Orsino Florida.
Hurray!! Ooops. Nope, Orsino doesn’t come up on my GPS.
Annoyed but not desperate I followed the driving instructions from their website and…we made it.
But driving back home, I had a eureka moment.
What if our GPS could use an extra simple trivial entry mode?
Hmmm, the idea is appealing but the infrastructure to build something like is ridiculous. Just think about indexing millions of places around the globe and assigning a unique ID. Impossible.
I’m still thinking, brainstorming while everyone is deeply asleep in the car…I needed to keep my neurons alert to resist diving in a coma myself.
Bang! Why not use Foursquare? Each venue is clearly marked with a unique ID. Each ID fits a description and best of all it offer tips, specials and nearby points of interest.
Man this is too simple. Way too simple. Imagine your email signature now:
Florian Seroussi
@florianseroussi
LABOTEC Inc.
Venue: 250674
Now just plug 250674 on Google maps, car GPS, TomTom, NavTeq, VZ Navigator or any tracking device and there you are, on your way to our office.
The service should shine by its simplicity, be global, accurate (something Foursquare might need to work on a bit) and reliable (no whale fail kinda).
I’m sure some of you will comment that this can be done using phone numbers in some GPS. True – but reality is:
- Not every business publicize their phone number
- Less and less people have a land line
- Phone numbers rarely match the physical address
- Privacy concerns? Unsolicited phone calls?
Anyway, far from the Groupon-coupon-discount-lbs bs, I think Foursquare should definitely explore this opportunity to offer car manufacturers a solid and inexpensive alternative to complex existing entry mode on navigation systems.
If not Foursquare, then maybe a reckless entrepreneur ready to build a layer on top of the existing location based service? Facebook places? What do you think?
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