InformationWeek | Cell-Phone Services | 'Point And Search' Technology For Cell Phones Hits Japan | January 30, 2006: "Users can point their cell phones at 700,000 buildings, retailers, restaurants, banks, and historical sites throughout Japan to retrieve information.

By W. David Gardner
TechWeb News

Jan 30, 2006 05:44 PM


GeoVector Corp. said Monday that it has teamed up with Japan's Mapion to offer Mapion's cell phone searching technology for mobile phones in Japan. Mapion Local Search enables consumers to use their cell phones as point and search devices to call up information.

San Francisco-based GeoVector said users can simply point their cell phones at 700,000 buildings, retailers, restaurants, banks or historical sites throughout Japan to retrieve information.

'Soon, users will point their mobile phones at restaurants to get reviews, point at billboards to shop at the advertiser's website, point at a movie poster to buy tickets, or play a game by pointing at their friends,' said GeoVector president John Ellenby, in a statement.

The service was initially developed for the KDDI network in Japan and is available for use with CDMA-equipped phones with GPS and integrated compass capability, according to GeoVector.

Owned by CyberMap Japan, Mapion developed mapping technology for several firms including Yahoo, AOL Japan, and Excite Japan, GeoVector said. GeoVector provides its pointing-based and spatial search engine technology for the application.

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