* seant@plazes. com <seant@plazes. com> [20071210 10:08]:
> On 12/7/07, Lance Wicks <lw@judocoach. com> wrote:
> > Question for you though, mobile client?
> >
> > I know the mobile client was cancelled, but given the "My Location"
> > feature in the new Google Maps app, maybe it's time to try it again?
>
> We're not currently working on a mobile client so it'd be a perfect
> opportunity for a simple solution that uses the API. Any Symbian/Java
> developers out there wanting to build something will get their
> downloads a special focus on plazes.com.

A nut to crack on this topic would be how to store network identifiers
for cell phone networks, or even better, a generalized solution to
store any kind of network identifier in Plazes and use it to create
best guesses for plaze suggestions.

Something analogous to the way Plazes deals with IPv4 networks right
now, but generalized. Right now, if you ask for plaze suggestions with
a mac_address,

http://dessert. plazes.com/ plazes.xml? mac_address= 00:1a:e2: cf:9b:20

it will use the given mac_address to find matching plazes.

Previously Plazes had a similar behaviour for the mobile plazer for
mobile phones with some fields for cellid, lac etc. I don't know if
there is a standardized format for mobile cellids, similar to mac
addresses, which is provided by all phone's APIs and could thus be
used by mobile plazers. If yes, one solution would be to introduce a
parameter mobile_cell_ address that works the same way as mac_address.

However, it would be good to have a setup that allows for any kind of
identifiers, something along these lines:

http://dessert. plazes.com/ plazes.xml? network:foo_ id=123819031321

And it would be good to support kinds of networks, or actually
generally any kind of indicator that can be used to extract hints at a
location, such as WLAN essid's, where multiple identifiers may occur
and contribute to the likeliness of being at the location of a
previous Plazes user.

For example, imagine a cell phone that has a WLAN scanner and a mobile
plazer that has access to the list of current WLAN essids that the
phone sees. If user A used Plazes to plaze himself somewhere where the
WLANs 'foo', 'bar', and 'baz' were visible, it would be nice if the
plazer of user B, who may be at a slightly different location and thus
see slightly different WLANs, could use this request:

http://dessert. plazes.com/ plazes.xml? network:essid= foo&network: essid=bar& network:essid= someotherwlan

and still get the plaze suggested that user A created.

Does anyone have a mobile application in mind where something like
this could be useful?

Til

--
http://plazes. com/whereis/ til | +49 176 20 19 51 69 | http://tils. net