Smartphone Thoughts: Google Maps Beta with My Location Feature Brings GPS Like Functionality to Non-GPS Phones

"See your location on the map, with or without GPS. Save time and tedious keystrokes finding where you are, what's around you, and how to get there. ... The My Location feature takes information broadcast from mobile towers near you to approximate your current location on the map - it's not GPS, but it comes pretty close (approximately 1000m close, on average). We're still in beta, but we're excited to launch this feature and are constantly working to improve our coverage and accuracy."

Wow, now this is impressive. The new Google Maps beta makes mobile mapping easy for non-GPS based handsets, which is almost all the phones out there. Google Maps makes use of the cell tower information to calculate your position, check out the YouTube video for more information. I haven't tried it out yet, but will be giving it a spin soon. We would like to hear your thoughts and comments about this application. Personally, I think, this is the kind of mobile development activity I would like to see from Google and not another mobile phone OS.