WebProNews

I've been playing with Virtual Earth's "locate me" technology and I'm very disappointed. It works by triangulating in on wifi hotspots near you and using those to figure out where you are.

One problem: it only works if the access points near you are in the database. When it works it's very cool. For instance, when I'm on Microsoft's campus it'll actually show you where you are down to what part of each building you're in.

But, I just tried it here in the Hyatt in Monterey and it says I'm in Seattle. Why? Because I'm using a T-Mobile hotspot and the database doesn't have good information for this access point.

Here's where an open to the public system would be far more useful. Sorta a "Wikipedia" approach. Why can't I go into the database and say "this access point is actually at XYZ location?"

Then geeks could build out the system and make it better over time. Heck, not ready to go full bore wikipedia style here? Give all Microsoft employees access. There's 57,000 of us. We could make this system far more useful in a very short period of time. At least I could make it work in the Monterey Hyatt.

MSN Virtual Earth

Reader Comments...

Robert Scoble is the founder of the Scobleizer blog. He works as PodTech.net's Vice President of Media Development. Go to Scobleizer ...