GPS Tracking ROI

Strictly speaking today’s feature isn’t about GPS tracking at all … but it certainly has been mad possible by the increased use of GPS and other location-based technologies, such as GIS (Geographic Information Services), encoding and Reverse encoding (converting between latitude and longitude and street addresses) and most importantly, the million-dollar Google Map services that out good grinds at Google furnish for free (or nearly free commercial) use.

I was reading news on a subject this morning completely removed from GPS or location issues when i came across an article describing what I was looking for on the Orlando sentinel’s excellent web site.

There I happened across a very interesting link that brings you to a page that lets you enter Zip Codes of neighborhoods you are interested in … say, perhaps, where you are thinking about buying a house … and you get back customized listings of crimes in that areas as furnished by law enforcement agencies.

Just a few years ago a map like this would have cost tens of thousands to develop and no newspaper in its right mind could have sponsored it.  But with modern web hosts and especially free or near-free Google Maps, the paper can now easily afford to post this sort of information as  a public service … and as a source of advertising income since thousands and thousands of "eye balls" visit each month.

Kudos to the Orlando Sentinel and the hardworking folks in law enforcement who help provide the information.  I think any city newspaper that isn’t doing this is really missing out on a great service as well as some nice ad revenue.

What use could your business, your city, your school district, your street department or your charitable organization make of the power of Google Maps and the compelling nature of location-based information.

Write me if you’d like more ideas … and Google?  Thank you guys, Google Maps is just more powerful than many can even imagine.