GPS Obsessed

Wavemarket has opened up its Veriplace platform to 3rd party developers today.  Veriplace is a location aggregation platform serving the North American market that is basically a middleware solution between application developers and wireless carriers.  Consisting of a User Discovery API, Get Location API, Management API and Privacy Engine, the Veriplace platform allows developers to access real-time user location data for use in their apps.

The Privacy Engine forms a core part of the platform, allowing application users full control over the visibility of their location.  In fact you’re probably unknowingly using it if you use any Family Locator product typically offered through major American wireless providers.

For developers, the Veriplace platform looks fairly clean and simple to use.  It utilizes RESTful APIs as well as OAuth, both common development frameworks on the web, as well as Microsoft Virtual Earth maps .  It also enables location data to be pulled from multiple carriers via a single API, a must for success with things like social network applications.

Wavemarket expects several applications created in its beta phase to launch with tier-one carriers in the United States within weeks.  It’ll be interesting to see exactly what developers have come up with.  Let’s just hope it isn’t another social network!

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WaveMarket and Microsoft have announced a partnership that will bring Microsoft Virtual Earth mapping technology to the Veriplace Location Aggregation platform.

Veriplace is used by numerous tier one wireless providers across the world to enable mobile application developers real-time access to the location information of handset users.  At the same time, it incorporates strict privacy controls that leave the handset user in full control of how much, if any, location data can be used.

WaveMarket’s chief executive officer, Tasso Roumeliotis, said in a statement that Microsoft Virtual Earth will “offer our developers powerful mapping, routing, and geocoding functionality for their location-aware applications.”

The company’s Family Locator, which allow family members to keep in touch via location, will also now incorporate Virtual Earth.

The latest North American carrier to adopt the Veriplace platform was Sprint, in December 2008.

Check out the full press release after the cut.

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Sprint has been taking location pretty seriously lately, incorporating location-aware features into its 4G Xohm WiMAX network before handing it off to Clearwire, and now launching an ‘open location platform’ for developers.  The new platform, provided by uLocate Communications and WaveMarket’s VeriPlace, is intended to encourage developers to create location-based applications for Sprint phones by providing a standard set of location APIs while at the same time keeping customer data private.

Having a standardized platform to work with is great for developers-it makes coding a location-based application consistent across Sprint handsets while eliminating a portion of the red-tape developers typically face when attempting to have an application included directly on a handset.  It’s great for consumers as well because they never have to worry about their data being used inappropriately; only the necessary location data needed for the application is used.  In addition, the customer has to opt-in to have their data used in the first place.

Sprint has an existing partnership with uLocate, developer of the popular WHERE application, that allows Sprint customers easy access to all kinds of WHERE widgets.  Sprint’s use of VeriPlace is new, but no surprise-WaveMarket provides a variety of white-label application solutions to the carrier such as the Sprint Mobile Locator.