The Open Location Ecosystem and the Mobile Internet

Gary Gale, Yahoo! Geo Technologies @ BCS NLBSeptember 2008

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Overview and Introduction

• Yahoo! Geo Technologies

– who we are, what we do

• User location

– problems, challenges, demands, opportunities

• Socialising location

– Yahoo!’s location brokerage

– opening up the location ecosystem

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... where am I? ... where are my friends?

... who’s near to me?... what’s near me?

... what’s relevant to where I am?

Yahoo! Geo Technologies

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Challenges, Market Demands and Business Needs

Multiple, Fragmented ApproachesInconsistent capture, definition, and context across network

Limited access and visibility to other applications and the user

Conflicts and gaps between internal approaches and applications

Overlapping, mismatched approaches and user experience

Crippled Accuracy and RelevanceLack of understanding and intent in relationship to the user

No consistent method or place for declaring “I am Here”

Coverage and accuracy varies by granularity and geography

GPS/Phone Device ConsolidationMore devices with integrated functionality; cell phone, internet, navigation

into one device

Phones with GPS, 3G, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and Navigation

GPS devices with 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and now phone

Market ConsolidationTomTom buys TeleAtlas for $4.5 Billion

Nokia buys Navteq for $8.1 Billion

Multiple Carriers backing Social Network/Location Services

•“Location-based services are one of the cornerstones of Nokia’s Internet services strategy. Location will ultimately be in every device” - Nokia’s president and CEO

Explosion of Location Based Services and APIs

Major handsets and platforms; Java, Symbian, Blackberry, Apple

Google Location API and Gears for Windows Mobile, Android

Yahoo! ZoneTag, Mobile, Fire Eagle Location API

Location-Aware Applications

Mainstream web sites leveraging location to display relevant info

Real-time traffic, gas prices, news, business listings, real-estate listings, etc.

Social mapping; upload maps, content with other users and applications

•“(the User Location market) … will nearly triple in revenue this year, to $1.3 billion from $485 million in 2007, and will reach $8 billion in 2011. - Gartner

•“(the User Location market) … will nearly triple in revenue this year, to $1.3 billion from $485 million in 2007, and will reach $8 billion in 2011. - Gartner

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User Location Solutions

Detection

Accuracy+

Granularity

Management

Privacy+

Sharing

Matching

Relevance+

Monetization

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Social Networks – Social Context

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Fire Eagle

Fire Eagle – Social and Location Context

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Without Fire Eagle

Vertical Towers of Siloed Location Data

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With Fire Eagle

User-Controlled Location Sharing and Integration

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Fire Eagle’s User-Controlled Geo ACLs

|- n’hood -|

|------ zip -----|

|-------- city -------|

|------------ county -----------||--------------- state ----------------|

|---------------- country -----------------|

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Fire Eagle

fireeagle.yahoo.net

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Fire Eagle

fireeagle.yahoo.net

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Navizon

navizon.com

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My Loki

my.loki.com

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eKit

ekit.com

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BrightKite

brightkite.com

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Plazes

plazes.com

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•Find me spot

Spot

findmespot.com

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Consolidating the World’s Geography

• WOEIDs

• Unique

• Permanent

• Global

• Shared with the public via

• Language Neutral– London = Londres = Londra = ロンドン

– United States = États-Unis = Stati Uniti = 米国

• Consolidates the concept of ‘place’; allows Yahoo! and our users to recognise locations consistently and globally

WhereHaus™Global Locations Database

• place names• zip codes

• airport codes• administrative regions• telephone code areas

• marketing areas• points of interests• colloquial areas• neighbourhoods

Describing the World’s Geography

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The Developers and Publishers Dilemma

•Yahoo’s Mobile Language

•Yahoo! needed a flexible language to seamlessly move our own mobile products across devices, platforms, operating systems, globally.

•Yahoo! developed our own new mobile language and opened it up to all developers in January 2008

•Based on W3C standard XForms

•Now available to advertisers, publishers and developers to mobilize content and services

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Resources

www.ygeoblog.com

developer.yahoo.com/fireeagle

developer.yahoo.com/geo

mobile.yahoo.com/developers/roadmap

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Thank You for Listening