Subsidize GPS with Ad supported devices

We bought ourselves a new GPS device and I gotta say, its worth every penny. It is especially use full on road trips and vacations. The more we are getting used to GPS devices, the less we are using mapping services like Google Maps or Yahoo Maps in our pre-trip planning. While on the road, its the GPS system that drives to restaurants, gas stations or state parks which we didn't plan to visit. GPS devices are still expensive and are costing an average of $500. The prices are going down and the adoption is going up and there in lies the opportunity of providing a "Ad supported" GPS device. CNET reports that GPS is going more and more mainstream with drop in prices.

Why the sudden popularity of GPS systems? We're not just getting lost more often, said Steve Koenig, an analyst with the CEA. Rather, as GPS devices come down to the sub-$500 level, he said, "there's a whole strata of consumers who will say, 'Yeah, that's a good service.'" And, Koenig added, it's one of those services that once experienced, many wonder how they ever did without.

I would love to see an "Ad supported" GPS device which is in the Sub-$100 price range. Advertising can bring down the cost of the device and drive the customers to the business that advertise on these devices. Companies like Google, Yahoo can tie up with navteq etc which provide the "Mapping Software", to list their adsense customers prominently on the GPS device.
Right now the GPS devices don't come with any productivity software where the users can store their preferences. Users should be able to port their calendars, to-dos, preferences etc onto a GPS devices.
I could imagine a scenario where

• The GPS prompt users to buy milk, if he or she is travelling by their preferred grocery store and has a to-do item on the list
  
• Prompt them to drop that check mentioned in the To-do when driving by a bank
• Latest discounts in Macy's or others stores which they have subscribed to recieve.
  

GPS devices must provide more features and should be a "hand held PC" with GPS feature rather than plain vanilla GPS. There should be an incentive for users to connect their GPS to the PC and thus share their habits/preferences. GPS vendors need to think beyond "navigation" and they are better positioned in a lot of ways for "location based" advertising compared to Mobile Companies.

Google Click to Call goes live

Google's click to call has officially gone live. Had suspected this would be one of the reasons for Google to launch an IM Client, soon after GTalk was released. It doesn't seem to have a direct integration with Gtalk at this point in time, but I would suspect this is in the works. In order to exploit the full potential of this functionality , it as to work all over the world and over a VOIP network.

What google needs to do with Orkut .

Social networking numbers are out and Orkut sits at #16. Since Orkut was built by Google Engineers in 20% of time, it behaves like one. It gives less than 20% of the features a social networking site should have and barely makes it in the top 20 of social networking sites worldwide. This has costed Google leadership in Social Networking, eventually leading to expensive acquisitions. Google has blogger, google video, youtube, AJAX chat interface in Gmail, picassa and lots of other products which should have been a part of fully developed Social Networking site.

Orkut should provide a way for users to share photos/slideshow on their profile, allow them to share blogs via RSS, share their youtube videos etc. Most Orkut users have blogs, online photos and use youtube. Just provide them a way to share them via Orkut. These are mature products with strong user base and have to be integrated seamlessly. Anything done now will be too little,too little, since orkut lacks the momentum that other sites have. Why do I care ? Well Orkut is huge in India and most of my friends are on Orkut. Would definitely appreciate some improvements.

Mihai Parparita updates Gmail macros

The gmail macros, which I had got so used to stopped working for a past few weeks. Mihai Parparita has now updated and add a few new features. Thanks so much Mihai, you scripts do a lot to improve my gmail experience. For the un-initiated refer to my previous post about these scripts.

Take your data !! Where and what ?

Making it simple for users to walk away from a Google service with which they are unhappy keeps the company honest and on its toes, and Google competitors should embrace this data portability principle, Eric Schmidt said at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco.

Well to begin with can I get access to my data ? I have no clue want kind of "attention" data is being gathered. The first step to generate confidence would be giving access to the attention data that Google is capturing and a way to manage it. The first step to win over people like me is to inform and share all the data that is being captured ? Where are all my searches sitting, how I can I delete them for ever ? Right now it sounds like Money in the bank, which can be transferred from Yahoo to Google or MSN, but the only person who doesn't have access to it is the end user. If I delete a mail in Gmail, does it get deleted for ever or it can be retrieved by Google. Search history can reveal a lot and how does one manage/delete it ?

Like.com sucks as an image search engine

Techcrunch boasts it as being the first True Visual search engine. I search for Tom Cruise and i get one results. So what is like.com ? Its not an image search engine for sure. Even from a star struck teenagers perspective, there is no way a user can search for the ear ring Paris Hilton is wearing at tmz.com's website on Like.com. So i don't get what's behind all this hype.