Every day more and more web traffic originates from mobile devices. The majority of that growth comes from touch-enabled devices like the iPhone and Android. A great deal of the excitement over these two platforms is largely due to the advanced capabilities they deliver through applications and services. Features like touch, tilt, and locations services have made them the hottest platforms around. Most of these technologies, however, are also available through web browsers on theses devices. Incorporating some of these functionalities into your websites will enhance user experience when viewing it on a mobile browser and portray your company as forward-thinking.

From Point A…to…You

Directions are an essential piece of information for any business and are typically handled in three ways: A focused guide or list of ways to a business, linking to Google Maps with the location already defined or through a plug-in in a page that connects to a map/directions service to provide directions tailored to the user’s location. Each one of these solutions involves one or more steps for a user to take. The first two options would send them to another website increasing the risk that they would not come back. The latter option requires the user to input their location (street, state and or zip code) to get the results. This brings up an interesting problem when you are using a mobile device. Where are you? In most situations this would be easy to figure out, even on the go. Number, street name and state are easy enough. A zip code might require a little more work, maybe even a web search. If a user is visiting the website of their favorite convenience store chain on their phone and would like to know where the nearest location is, it would be convenient if the website could request their location through the phone's GPS eliminating the guess work. On the iPhone and Android (and soon Blackberry’s) platforms browsers can do just that. This feature helps us better service the user by eliminating several tasks they would normally do to access this information on the go. It also removes the extra step of querying a database for the coordinates to send to the map/directions service like Google Maps or Map Quest.

Demo: Press the button below to see geo-location in action

	Directions
Notice: Directions are seeded by the GPS location of your mobile device, running this demo on a desktop will use the coordinates of your Internet Provider's closest node.

This geo-location feature can also be used to display location-based content and sale/banners or promotions. Enabling real-time tracking for a user’s location allows content and data to be updated accordingly. This functionality opens up an incredible range of opportunities to reach your audience in personalized and engaging ways.