With SXSW going on in Austin, Texas, the big focus in the blogosphere is on location-based applications, probably most of which are tied somehow to social networking. Personally though, I find Google’s Product Search for mobile with local inventory much more interesting.

Live as of yesterday, the mobile application lets searchers see in product search results if products are in stock at nearby stores.

For example, in the image above, a search for Wii Fit displays a result with a blue dot and phrase “In stock nearby” underneath. If the searcher clicks on the phrase or dot, they’ll be taken to the seller’s page where there will be more information, a Google Maps listing and the option to get directions if My Location is enabled.

Currently the application works on the iPhone, Palm webOS and Android. It also works from Google.com if the searcher clicks on Shopping under the More tab–all from a mobile browser of course.

Right now, only a few retailers are participating in the program including Best Buy, Sears, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn and West Elm. Other businesses that wish to participate can film out this form.

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Google tracks local inventory on your mobile phone is a post from: GPS Obsessed

The demise of paid mobile mapping applications has begun. Just last year, European wireless carrier Vodafone shelled out $30 million to purchase Swedish startup Wayfinder, a turn-by-turn navigation platform. Of course, at the time Vodafone has every intention of charging for the application to make that $30 million back.

With the release of free Google Maps Navigation and free Nokia Ovi Maps navigation, both fully featured turn-by-turn navigation apps, Vodafone’s Wayfinder vision was cooked and the service has been officially shut down.

Vodafone’s Anna Cloke spoke to Engadget and put things into perspective:

“We could not charge for something that other gave away for free.”

And the deathwatch begins…

Vodafone shuts down Wayfinder due to Google, Nokia is a post from: GPS Obsessed

If you haven’t yet heard of Chatroulette, it’s some crazy site that provides webcam video chats with complete strangers.

I really shouldn’t have to say anything more for you to picture the unsavory potential here.

A couple of months after the site reached global infamy, the first map mashup has appeared called Chatroulette Map. The application pulls the IP addresses of its users, and together with a screenshot, plots the whole package on a map.

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Chatroulette Map locates video chat creeps is a post from: GPS Obsessed

Google today has extended its 360-degree, Street View photographic imagery coverage in the United Kingdom to include 95% of homes in the country and another 210, 000 miles of road.

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Google Street View now covers all of UK is a post from: GPS Obsessed

T-Mobile USA has joined WaveMarket’s Veriplace Cloud Location Platform Initiative today, enabling third-party mobile application developers access to the carriers’ anonymized location information gathered from subscriber smartphones.

T-Mobile joins WaveMarket geolocation initiative is a post from: GPS Obsessed

MapmyIndia releases Road Pilot GPS navigator is a post from: GPS Obsessed

TeleNav publishes GPS users search habits, reveals they like pizza is a post from: GPS Obsessed

Google Maps biking directions hits the United States is a post from: GPS Obsessed

I’ve always known it would just be a matter of time until Facebook rolled out built-in geolocation features. According to the New York Times Bits blog, citing company sources, Facebook will officially announced geolocation features at its annual f8 developers conference in late April. According to Bits, Facebook will not only allow users to append location information to their status updates but also provide a set of APIs so that developers can allow location information to be shared with the social networking platform.

With 400 million users this has the potential to turn the location-based application industry upside down. Facebook’s 100 million active mobile users are perhaps even more significant. But the company says it won’t attempt to compete with the Foursquare’s and Gowalla’s of the world, but rather try to take on Google in the local small business advertising niche. How that’ll work remains to be seen.

Twitter has also apparently rolled out geolocation capabilities on its website today though it’s been available from mobile phones and via its API for some time.

Facebook built-in location features coming in April is a post from: GPS Obsessed

by Greg Bartlett / guest author

When was the last time you looked at a picture of you or your family and asked yourself “Where in the world was that taken?” Unless you’re obsessive about cataloguing each photo you take, chances are it’s happened more than once. For those of us who can’t remember our own birthdays, much less where we were when that photo of the pretty butterfly was taken, Sony has introduced a GPS tracker to supplement your memory banks.

The photo mapper is a small GPS tracking device that can be clipped to your belt or backpack as you walk. It keeps track of your location throughout the day by recording coordinates at intervals. Simply carry it with you and make sure it’s clock is synchronized with the clock on your camera. At the end of the day, you can download the information to your computer and the software will match the location information with the time stamp on your digital photographs. You’ll have an instant map of your adventures plus new categorizing abilities including organization by trip, state, or city in which the pictures were taken. An online map powered by Google Maps allows you to add additional photos, keeping a photographic record of your travels that can be updated after each new excursion. Acting as virtual markers on the map, you pictures will synchronize with the location information in order to put place names at your fingertips rather than at the tip of your tongue.

Whether your next vacation includes several cities, several states, or several countries, you’ll never again have to worry about looking at a quaint village nestled in the hillside and wondering whether it was in Italy or Spain, or whether that vineyard was in California or Nevada. Your GPS tracking device will do the remembering for you and when you go to show off your travels to family and friends, you can focus on relating the humorous or special details that made the trip memorable rather than stumbling over memory lapses regarding specific place names.

GPS tracking devices have become an integral part of our lives and can be expected to become even more so as new technology incorporates tracking in order to make everything from jogging to photography a little easier. Watch for new innovations to help you keep tabs on family and friends, no matter where in the world they might travel.

GPS Tracking Devices Help You Organize Your Memories is a post from: GPS Obsessed