The way a GPS device works is that it determines your geo-location by triangulation—much like transceiving cellphone calls. With a cellphone, you don’t care where you are—so long as the signal is good; with a GPS receiver, you do. Just the location, however, means nothing to a normal user, unless it is superimposed on a map. So in effect, a map (mapping technology) underneath is the soul of a GPS device. The more accurate and latest the maps are, the higher is the device rated—in its ability to guide you out of, say, the phantom Route 66.

Shifting mapping dynamics are these two events: Tomtom cut a deal with Tele Atlas a while ago, and now Nokia buys the other mapping giant, NAVTEQ. Both these companies (Tele Atlas and NAVTEQ) have been providing technologies unbiased to device and service companies alike. By acquiring the very source, Tomtom and Nokia are now in a position to disrupt that balance.

Recreating maps from scratch to support a business—when a rival buys the source and cuts the umbilical cord that feeds vital information—is going to set any company back by years; not to mention the potential of unleashing a chain of events that could eventually knock them out of GPS business for good. But if my perception of these two companies is anything to go by, then, Tomtom and Nokia both scale very high on open and transparent business approaches. However, it remains to be seen how all this would affect consumers in the long run.

More than Tomtom—which is already in the GPS business, Nokia, I think, has an edge over rival phone companies in being able to offer something that no other cellphone company would be able to—without charging its customers additional mapping costs to similarly featured devices. All this could also have a quick cascading effect in enabling GPS navigation in countries that don’t have it good yet. A business model for launching (new) navigational satellites could well emerge—with an inexpensive device in consumers’ hands ready to receive the signal.

Every map is a description of your personal journey through those (exotic) places, recordings of your own footprints—in images; paths and rides taken; personal incidents and snippets surrounding them. Nothing better describes our journey through a place like it does when we describe it through our maps; and that’s what we’re trying to do—for posterity’s sake.

1. Google Maps has a My Maps feature built-in, which lets people make their own custom maps, add descriptions, insert pictures and enabling us to tell a story surrounding those.

• Google Maps markup provides iframe tag, which is not recognized in XHTML Strict. So I had to downgrade my DTD definition to XHTML 1.0 Transitional—no regrets, considering the richness Maps add to my posts.
• Google Maps markup does not validate by default. So I had to change the frameborder="no" to frameborder="0".
• The default size of 425:350 is neither attractive, nor fits my layout in an elegant way.¹ So I changed it to 500:309.

Here are a few posts that carry my maps well:

1. Antwerpen and Brugge (filed under Trips).
2. Leiderdorp sailing (filed under Holland).
3. Kinderdijk (filed under Holland).
4. Ghent (filed under Trips).

Now that this is working, look forward to more embedding more from our trips and places visited.

1. If you’ve read my previous posts, then you know what I think about aspect ratios.

Thrilled obviously because I get to include maps of our excursions². Maps, narration and pictures when presented together give readers an amazing sense of completeness of, say, a travelogue for example.

Worried because embedding or inserting objects come with their own headaches—in terms of site validation. If it is going to be like the Youtube insert code, then I’d rather continue with what I’ve been doing all along—just link to the long URL instead.

So here’s hoping that Google Maps inserts are going to validate by default.

1. Or insert <object>, whichever Google pushes by default.
2. A habit I have picked-up in recent times.

Now, this is really useful. I’d love to see it give me Tram directions, next, from one stop to another—instead of road directions—when I specifically use the Tram stop bubble to input my destination. But this is cool already. Thanks, Google Maps.

Update: Ditto for Bus stops.

How nice.

This is how driving directions should be¹. All you need to do then, is to just print and carry it in your glove box — as a perfect offline backup plan, complementing your GPS.

1. Something Google Maps can learn from.

Mechelen is a very cozy place, tiny streets where you could barely squeeze your car in and out of; and it’s hard-to distinguish whether it’s meant for vehicular or pedestrian traffic, thanks to the cobblestone pavement used without distinction. We took one, much to the surprise of many onlookers and outdoor diners. It became obvious to us that it was a pedestrian street and we drove over it, smiling and waving at them =). It goes without saying that we were lucky not to have the Belgian (traffic) police around.

The GPS took us close to the hotel, but we couldn’t distinguish it, thanks to Mechelen’s extremely narrow lanes. We called the hotel’s central help and gave her our position. While she was giving us directions, we mentioned that we were using the GPS. She stopped and said: “Oh, you’re using GPS? Good, because usually GPS devices cannot find our street, so try this one.” And she gave us another street name and a number, with which our device took us straight to the hotel door.

It was most interesting to note Novotel staff’s GPS-awareness and their quick response to customer’s needs. We wouldn’t be surprised if this goes for most places in Europe.