Mobile Mapping services

Mobile social mapping service that allows people to share their location with friends.
For instance, let's say you are in France. Instead of having your approximate location detected and shared automatically, you can manually set your location for elsewhere - perhaps a visit to Niagara Falls.
Mobile mapping refers to a means of collecting geospatial data using mapping sensors mounted on a mobile platform. Its development was primarily driven by the advances in digital imaging and direct-georeferencing technologies.
The ability to map a location has become an integral part of the online and mobile experience.
In the online and mobile world, mapping services from Microsoft and Google have in fact trained Yellow Pages users and advertisers on how to immediately benefit from mapping services on websites and mobile portals. Mapping services give our company the opportunity to connect buyers and sellers even more easily than before.
As the Google Maps code is almost entirely Javascript and XML, some end-users reverse-engineered the tool and produced client-side scripts and server-side hooks which allowed a user or website to introduce expanded or customized features into the Google Maps interface.
Using the core engine and the map/satellite images hosted by Google, such tools can introduce custom location icons, location coordinates and metadata , and even custom map image sources into the Google Maps interface. The script-insertion tool Greasemonkey provides a large number of client-side scripts to customize Google Maps data.
The growing market penetration of Internet mapping, satellite imaging and personal navigation has opened up great research and business opportunities to geospatial communities. Multi-platform and multi-sensor integrated mapping technology has clearly established a trend towards fast geospatial data acquisition.
Sensors can be mounted on various platforms, such as satellites, aircrafts or helicopters, terrestrial vehicles, water-based vessels, and may even be hand-carried by individuals.
With the escalating use of telecommunication networks and the increasing availability of low-cost and portable sensors, mobile mapping has become more dynamic, and even pervasive. The book addresses a wide variety of research issues in the mobile mapping community, ranging from system development to sensor integration, imaging algorithms and mobile GIS applications. This book will provide researchers and practitioners a good overall view of what is being developed in this topical area.