Charles Gallant

As of yesterday, Google has added traffic reports for major cities to Google Maps. Their growing collecting of data related to physical (mappable) space seems limitless in its potential. They could…

- Integrate this data into their “Get directions” feature on Google Maps, and suggest an alternate (faster) route.

- Allow commuters to subscribe to RSS feeds about the highways that they frequent, making for automatically informed updates.

- Keep track of which particular roads certain users were subscribed to, estimate their traveling needs, and deliver custom ads. For example, if a user’s data suggests that he goes up to Vermont every weekend, show them ads for ski boots on the Friday before the trip.

- Partner with car navigation systems, and offer customized ads/coupons to people stuck in traffic. For example: “Looks like you’ll be here a while, and it’s dinner time. Stop over at the next Bob’s Big Boy. It’s just 700ft ahead”.

- Keep track of regular statistics on traffic conditions, and provide insights to newcomers. For example, major arteries departing from Manhattan tend to slow down on Fridays after 6:00pm. For some highways, they should be able to roughly estimate future traffic conditions.

- Combine their calendar data into this system, and sync it up with events. For example, if a large accident happens close to a particular meeting (Google Calendar can store an event’s location), it can send notices out to all those who share the calendar.

- Create traffic APIs of traffic data to be accessed by car navigation systems for additional traffic info.

- Use the chips that they’ve planted inside the public to start work on a sidewalk traffic system.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 at 9:55 pm and is filed under coherence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.