uLocate Communications, Inc., an award-winning publisher of wireless location-based services (LBS), today announced support for GeoRSS and KML to bring worldwide content to the WHERE mobile application. WHERE now provides easy tools to add KML and GeoRSS from Mapufacture to the phone. Mobile phone users will be able to view thousands of location feeds including local news wire stories, user-generated travel guides, local blogs, restaurant reviews, and virtual location notes.
GeoRSS and KML content is available from thousands of websites and content providers. By creating interoperability with these existing formats, WHERE continues to lower the complexity and time associated with launching GPS-based mobile applications. Developers interested in building applications with GeoRSS or KML support can easily create them using the developer tools, documentation and samples available through the WHERE Developer Program at www.where.com/create.
Mapufacture’s GeoRSS: Location Feeds from Across the Internet
GeoRSS is a format for geographic information that helps convert local information on Internet websites into useful local content on the phone. For example, a breaking news story in a local town can be displayed on a map according to the location where the event occurred, allowing people to keep a finger on the pulse of what’s happening in their neighborhood from their phone. The Mapufacture GeoRSS widget allows WHERE users to access the location information from thousands of websites across the Internet in real-time.
KML: Managing Your Location Content
Keyhole Markup Language (KML) is a geographic format for location content that is widely used by geographic tools such as Google Earth and Google MyMaps. WHERE KML widgets allow mobile phone users to easily view the location content from the large and growing KML community, as well as build their own customized maps for viewing on the phone. For example, WHERE KML widget users can access the physical locations for major league and minor league baseball fields, allowing baseball enthusiasts to easily identify and map the nearest ballpark when traveling. “We continue to improve the WHERE platform in anticipation of market trends and needs. Our developer community asked for GeoRSS and KML support to make it easier to bring GPS widgets to market,” said Walt Doyle, CEO and President of uLocate. “GeoRSS and KML enhance thousands of location-based services on the Web. The integration of those standards in the mobile environment on WHERE provides developers with increased platform flexibility to build compelling content and applications.” WHERE users and developers interested in GeoRSS and KML can find more information at http://www.where.com/create.
“The use of location aware and location enabled services is absolutely exploding,” said Mike Tyrrell. “uLocate’s WHERE platform enables content and application companies to easily develop and quickly deploy mobile applications. WHERE also simplifies the discovery of content, enabling consumers to select from a wide variety of such apps via the Web or their handset. WHERE removes an incredible amount of friction for all three constituencies; developer, operator, and consumer….everybody wins.”
About WHERE
WHERE leverages the same GPS-based technology underpinning MapQuest Find Me, Helio Buddy Beacon and other popular mobile applications. The platform uses simple, yet powerful WHERE mark-up language and scripting to allow developers to write in their preferred development language and assemble applications on mobile handsets. As a result, consumers have a wealth of content to choose from, effectively personalizing their mobile GPS experience to find the people, places and things that matter to them. More information can be found at www.where.com.
About uLocate
uLocate Communications, Inc. (www.ulocate.com) is a privately held, venture-backed leader in location-based services headquartered in Framingham, Mass.
About Mapufacture
More information about Mapufacture is available at http://www.mapufacture.com.
