Google Maps Doesn't Know Where You Are, But Knows Where Your Mobile Is - Money Is In The Location!

Google (GOOG) released a pretty neat feature today on Google Maps called My Location. Om has a good summary of how the feature works and I have embedded the video below (looks like they hired the paper dudes to create the video). When Om loaded it up, it said he was in London not San Francisco.

The service is pretty simple. If you have Google Maps loaded on your mobile, you hit 0 and it displays a blue box to show you approximately where you are located. That's it.

Here is my guess. They will use this information to market to you and your location. You see, if I just ask for a map, they have no idea where I am. But if they know that I am on 14th Street and 9th Avenue, then they can send me an ad for the bagel shop on the next block.

Google says the following regarding privacy:

“This approximation is anonymous, as Google does not gather any personally identifiable information or associate any location data with personally identifiable information as part of the My Location feature. The feature can also be easily disabled by anyone who prefers not to use it.”

But of course, while it might not know who I am, it sure will know where I am. And that's where the richness is my friends.

Here is the video overview - it's cute but pretty lengthy - my 20 words above sums it up pretty well.