WebProNews

Tag: google coordinate

  • Google Coordinate Gets An iPhone App

    Back in June, Google introduced Google Maps Coordinate, a tool designed to improve the communication between businesses and their employees while they’re on the go.

    Update: Google has now officially announced the app.

    The tool has been available on Android, but now there’s an iPhone version in the App Store, with a shorter name – Google Coordinate. According to iDownloadBlog (via TheNextWeb), it’s been released in New Zealand, but you can get it here in the U.S. too.

    As Google explained in its initial announcement, employees download the app, and share their location in real-time, while recording data. “Mobile teams often need to collect information while out in the field. Google Maps Coordinate allows the admin to customize the fields that the mobile team needs to capture and collect – from measurements to client contact details – directly in the app,” said senior product manager Daniel Chu.

    The dispatcher back at the office can create teams, manage jobs and view past jobs and locations.

    The app requires a license for functionality, so not everyone will be able to just download it and start using it.

  • Google Maps’ New Tool Helps Bosses Stay on Your Ass

    If you travel a lot for your job or happen to be in the type of delivery service where you get to wear brown shorts in the warm seasons, Google’s latest mapping tool could either be a great help or a great big pain in the backside depending on how your boss should implement it.

    The new tool, Google Maps Coordinate, combines Google Maps with aspects of Google Latitude, the company’s tracking service that shows other people your location in real-time (you have to opt-in to Latitude and even then only people with whom you allow to see your location will be able to keep tabs on you, but that’s also only when it’s working). If an employer regularly has workers out in the field, whether its a cable company or a messenger service, she will be able to create tasks for the employees currently dispatched and then assign the tasks according to whichever worker is available and nearest.

    On the employee’s side of things, they will be able to check in when they arrive at the job and then update the information whenever the job is complete. Employers will also be able to see each other’s location when out in the field so they can travel over to lend in a helping hand if need be (or just coordinate a good location to meet for their lunch break).

    The service sounds a lot more benign than it potentially is in the intro video that Google put together, which is why Google probably used the example of an “alternative power business” instead of, say, a pimp or a hitman.

    Google Maps Coordinate, perhaps obviously, works across mobile platforms and also integrates Google Indoor Maps.

    While this is only available for businesses at the time, this could potentially be an amazing tool for organizing personal outings, too, such as when planning a protest or simply just trying to herd everybody together in a timely fashion for impromptu dinner plans.