geolocation

The long-rumored geolocation "check-in" feature at Facebook is slated to debut within weeks, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNET.

It's going to take the form of an application programming interface (API) for third-party companies on the Facebook developer platform, integrating existing "check-in" start-ups more deeply into the massive social-networking service and in turn permitting location-aware data to become a part of existing platform applications.

Facebook declined to provide much detail. "We are working on location features and product integrations, which we'll be launching in the coming months, and we'll share … Read more

On our show today: our favorite smartphone apps to help find stuff to do, things to eat, and people to connect with. Also, your questions and calls answered, including tips on painting laptops. But not until Josh shows off his USB-powered warning lights and a beer cooler that looks like a laptop case.

Geolocation services--mobile applications that allow users to share their physical whereabouts with their networks--are gaining momentum. This week, Foursquare said it hit 100 million check-ins, with nearly 1 million "check-ins" per day. Earlier this year, Twitter added its own geotagging feature and now Facebook is reportedly working on its own.

But as these services gain speed, so too, it appears, do user privacy fears--at least according to a survey conducted by Webroot, a maker of antivirus and antispyware software.

Given the nature of Webroot's business, the company does have a vested interest in the topic. Nonetheless, the … Read more

How do you zero in on a location without using GPS? You use cell phone towers.

BlackBerry-maker RIM announced on Monday that it will use cell-tower triangulation as part of a new geolocation feature in its Locate Service for the BlackBerry Application Platform.

This tactic of using signal from nearby cell towers to approximate your phone's location is nothing new, and in fact, has been used as an ersatz procedure for finding your general coordinates for years.

As one notable example, Google has used "triangulation"--so-called since it used at least three towers to find your point … Read more

There's a reason Google can shut down its Street View cars and still maintain a quality geolocation service on mobile devices: it's crowdsourcing the data.

Mobile-phone and some laptop users who use Google applications to get a fix on their position or share their location with friends are helping Google build out a database of Wi-Fi hot spots, the company confirmed Tuesday. Users generally understand when they are sharing their own location with Google or its partners, but they may not realize they are also helping Google match Wi-Fi hot-spot location data with GPS coordinates by transmitting the … Read more

When IBM speaks of Smarter Planet or the U.S. Department of Energy talks of smart grids, a big part of the vision is pervasive sensors that measure and meter the physical world in real time.

Implicit is the assumption that much of this instrumentation will be deliberate and purposeful, put in place for a specific function such as measuring traffic flows or electricity consumption.

This is all fascinating stuff. But what I find even more intriguing is how data that's created by individuals--perhaps even as an accidental byproduct of some activity--can be aggregated and mined to deliver insights. … Read more

A start-up called Topguest is aiming to take the wild assortment of location-based "check-in" services out there and turn them into something a little more familiar: hotel and travel reward points. The company, which launched Thursday amid the craziness of Internet Week New York, is currently in a "preview" version that consists of a partnership with the trendy Andre Balazs-helmed Standard Hotels chain.

Here's how it works. Topguest users sign up and then connect any number of location-based social media services--Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, Brightkite, Yelp, and Google Latitude for now. Most of it is handled … Read more

Access to Foursquare's "check-in" app has been blocked in China, the mobile networking service confirmed with CNET on Friday.

Rumors began to circle about the ban early Friday when tweets and blog posts from Chinese Foursquare users indicated that they could not access the service.

Foursquare is still looking into the issue, co-founders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai told CNET. Namely, they aren't sure whether this will be a permanent block or temporary. But it appears to be linked to the 21st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, the 1989 incident in which the Chinese military … Read more

NEW YORK--When you ignore the map, sometimes you take a wrong turn. That's what Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz admitted her company did a few years ago when it stopped devoting significant engineering resources to its Yahoo Maps product.

Bartz held a press conference Monday with Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo to announce a partnership that will bring Yahoo's e-mail and messenger services to Nokia's Ovi service and Nokia's Navteq mapping service to Yahoo. While the story on the surface is that Yahoo is gradually shedding its properties that have fallen behind, handing over the reins of its … Read more