An initiative called “GeoSMS” proposes the use of “geo:” URIs in text messages (mobile short messages – SMS). This was actually a use case that i discussed with several IETF fellows during the development of the geo: URI specification – i’m happy that someone took the effort to write a formal specification.

The proposal got an amazing amount of press coverage, including articles on  New York Times, der Standard (german), Times of India, intomobile and various other news sites in the mobile and tech industry.

It’s nice to see how the design properties of the “geo:” URI (short, simple, human-readable) are the base for another simple and straightforward standard proposal. Let’s hope that mobile phone developers implement GeoSMS (and, hence “geo:” URIs) in their future products. The GeoSMS developers themselves have already created an Android application called “I am Here”. More details and the actual specification are available here:

GeoSMS – “geo:” URIs in text messages

RFC5870 – the “geo:” URI specification