Sprint, GeoVector use GPS to improve local search
Sprint today announced Slifter, a mobile phone product search that uses GPS technology to find products at neighborhood stores.
Spring is exploiting the advantage it has with GPS technology, which lets it know where your phone is so that it can serve you relevant local information, including prices and availability of products in your area — and give you directions too (here’s Sprint’s announcement).
We should point out GeoVector, a San Francisco company that offers a much more interesting GPS technology. GeoVector uses GPS, and additionally uses a compass technology so that if point your phone in a direction, GeoVector will tell you where the nearest restaurants or other stores are. That company is active in Japan, where GPS usage is more widespread. Once you locate the restaurant you want, GeoVector shows you its number, so you can call for a reservation. You can do other things, such as search for store specials or coupons.
Soon, GeoVector says, users will be able to point their mobile phones at restaurants to get reviews, point at billboards to shop at the advertiser’s website, point at a movie poster to buy tickets.
Earlier this week, it updated its technology (see announcement) for the Japanese market, letting people pointing and clicking mobile phones at retailers, restaurants, historical sites or any of 700,000 points of interest across Japan. It uses the KDDI network.
Here is a presentation of how it works (downloads pdf).
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
