AOL IM adds location-aware capability
According to BusinessWeek, AOL is offering users a new instant messaging capability that allows them to see the physical location of their buddies. Currently this new location-aware feature is available only to IM clients on desktop or laptop computers. Supports for cellphones are coming soon.
Central to this new feature is a plug-in called Skyhook. It doesn’t rely on GPS to provide location data, but rather it uses Wi-Fi signals.
The first phase of this push is with an unusual software plug-in developed by Skyhook Wireless, whose backers include Intel Corp. Skyhook tracks locations by using the continuous wireless pulses emitted by all Wi-Fi transmitters and Wi-Fi-enabled computers, rather than more common satellite-based approach.
The Skyhook plug-in, available as a free download, adds a new grouping to AIM’s buddy list window called “Near Me.” That group will feature the names of any buddies who opt to share their locations and who are within a set distance from the AIM user.
Skyhook Wireless spent years collecting Wi-Fi signal data across the country.
The company has spent the past few years driving a fleet of 200 trucks up and down the streets of 2,500 cities and towns across the United States and Canada. These trucks scan for the pulse given off at least once a second by every home wireless router or commercial hotspot, recording the unique identifying code for that piece of Wi-Fi equipment. That code is correlated with the exact physical location where it was captured using GPS in the trucks, which cruise the streets at 15 to 50 miles per hour as they collect this information.
The resulting database consists of 16 million Wi-Fi access points covering an area where Skyhook says 70 percent of the U.S. population lives and six Canadian markets where the majority of that nation’s people live.
