3 ms·
This will be very useful in airports. It would also be nice in supermarkets, but that data would be tough to keep fresh.
by cloudwalking 15y ago
This will be very useful in airports. It would also be nice in supermarkets, but that data would be tough to keep fresh.
- ajross 15y agoWhich is why they're trying to crowd source the maintainership: the idea is that airports and giant retail stores will have a built-in incentive to keep their maps updated. And it might be true. But I'm a little mixed on this. Google maps, while great and useful, isn't an open source project. The data is closed and proprietary and not useful to the community at large. I'd much rather this be done under the umbrella of OSM or the like, or if nothing else published as a separate data set subject to open licensing.
- pagekalisedown 15y agoRetail stores are optimized to make you spend the most on each visit. That's why necessities are in the back and far apart from each other. A floor plan goes against the self interest of the store.
- ajross 15y agoA fair point, but it's only true in isolation. If they're in competition with another equally-well-stocked chain that has floorplans, then customers might prefer to shop at the niftier, more modern place with the fun maps. Note that big department stores have always had maps available at the entrance, it's not like they're inherently opposed to the practice.
- aklemm 15y agoPrices will just go up a bit across all items once this available in all/most stores, and the stores will stop relying on suckering us into buying a bit more than we want in order to keep their margins up. That's the small price we'll pay for the added convenience.
- aerosuch 15y agoHave you seen Aisle411 for retail stores? They have some crowdsourced information (aisles in which products are located), which might be easier to maintain than more granular (exact Lat/Lon) location. http://aisle411.com/ http://aisle411.com/