Digital Trends

Google Maps for Mobile has added a new feature that can plot a user's approximate location, even if the user's phone doesn't have an integrated GPS.

There's no question that mobile mapping software on a phone can be a very cool thing, but if you don't have a GPS-enabled phone, it can also be incredibly tedious: to plot a route or figure out what's nearby, you have to laboriously determine and enter your own location, and then (potentially) the address of your destination as well.

To ease your frustration, Google has added a new beta My Location feature to its Google Maps for Mobile service: even if you don't have a GPS-enabled phone, pressing "0" will plot a blue dot on the map to show your current location. If you have a GPS phone, the blue dot is a precise little point. Without a GPS phone, the blue point is surrounded by a light blue area, indicating some uncertainty about where you are. The larger location area results from Google using information broadcast from mobile towers to get an approximate idea of where you are. Google says the algorithm, on average, can pinpoint your phone within about 1,000 meters (a little over half a mile).

Google built the service independently of mobile phone carriers by anonymously analyzing mobile signals received by Google Maps users and constructing its own database of cell towers. Using that information, Google can compare the mobile signal readings on a particular mobile phone and make a reasonable guess where that phone must be located.

The feature is available on most Web-enabled phones, including Java-enabled phones, BlackBerry devices, Windows Mobile phones, and Nokia/Symbian devices. Google is offering the service free of charge; eventually, the company hopes to tie it in with local advertising and other location-aware services.