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
I actually would like to see it implemented in GPS apps like Trekbuddy, which already have a “I’m here” SMS feature…
Check out Geo Messages project: http://servletsuite.com/geomessage
Den, thanks for the comment. However, i can’t find on your page whether geomessage uses the “geo:” URI at all? There’s very little about the actual format of the SMS – maybe you could clarify.
>There’s very little about the actual format of the >SMS
SMS (or email) contains a mobile friendly short link to the map, that shows 2 points: shared location and your own location so upon receiving you can see where you are relatively that shared point. URL is a link to mobile mashup that actually supports parameters from geo URI scheme (lat, lng, q etc.)
Den, thanks for the explanation. For short map links, you probably want to try http://xm.my/ – it’s another web site that i operate.