Thanks to the high-tech hand-held devices that are affordable and available to all and sundry, it is easy to look for and get information that is specific to locations. For example, if you are at the Central Park of New York or the Red Fort in Delhi, you can access information that gives you a better travelling experience. However, like with every smart bit of technology, this one comes with its share of problems as well. Spammers, and even impersonators, can target such users. Google is taking some concrete steps to prevent this kind of spam and scrapers.
Google has grabbed a patent by which it can prevent spamming by location-specific data. It is looking to hide specifics of starting and ending points of a user’s journey as he travels from Point A to Point B with a mobile device. Google is planning to use sophisticated technology in the form of a combination comprising GPS technology, accelerometers, gyroscopes and other mobile technologies to zero in on a user’s geographic location. With this deadly combination, the information about users on the go can be available at lower costs and far greater accuracy than by using GPS technology alone.
It is true that in the past Google has always come up with patents and innovations to prevent spamming. But this is probably the first time that this search engine giant has taken out a patent to analyze and throw out spam and scrapers with respect to location-specific information. The algorithms of Google will detect the credibility of the information offered to users looking for localized material. There is little surprise in the fact that Google is thinking on these lines at all. After all, android phones and Smartphone technologies have ensured that the internet has to provide location-specific material for users flaunting these devices.
This investment in technology on the part of Google is justified when you consider how much they have already pumped in to improve Google Maps. With all the hard work that they have put in, they would hate to allow spammers to undo what their achievement. The patent that Google is gunning for also provides a methodology to combat spamming and protecting credible information and searches. It will also help to root out information that is can identify users personally. This patent will definitely address the privacy concerns of mobile device users in protecting the information that they are looking for.
