The geo industry has been buzzing about the news — Coast being a towering figure in the mapping world and one of the most prominent advocates for open data. Microsoft seems to be increasingly interested in challenging Google’s map offerings and building up its own arsenal. In August, Bing added an OSM layer to its maps and is now allowing its aerial photos to be used by the OSM community. Not surprising since the future looks bright for the industry as a whole, especially as location continues to increase in importance. There are a number of reactions to the news worth reading, including on All Points, James Fee, GISuser, and ReadWriteWeb.

In other news, Wi-Fi provider JiWire has acquired NearbyNow which, paraphrased by TechCrunch, “allows brands to show products within an app or an ad and confirm availability of the product in the actual store. Users can also reserve the product in the store for pickup.” JiWire is making bullish moves into the LBS sector, and is trying to move beyond check-ins by combining location-based advertising with merchandise platforms. A report released by JiWire last week seemed to pre-empt the deal, showing off high numbers of LBS usage during the holiday season.

“Ankit Agarwal, CEO of Sunnyvale-based Micello, says his app does for the inside of shopping centers what Google maps has done for the world outside. It’s fairly simple — sort of an interactive map that allows you to locate products inside a mall and then get walking directions to your destination. It’s easy to use, with a clean interface that removes much of the aggravation shoppers experience as they navigate through the increasingly cluttered realm of the modern shopping center.

‘You’re essentially carrying the mall directory in your pocket,’ says Agarwal.”

Read the full story.

Surprisingly, 89% of respondents reported that they would use some sort of LBS tool during the holiday shopping season — an enormous difference from the 4% reported in the latest Pew Survey. This actually makes sense –the vast majority of these users are traveling and are turning to public Wi-Fi over their mobile network. While traveling,  people need help searching for basic location information, especially store location information if they’re doing some shopping. You’ve got to find the store before you can shop there.

Read the full report here.

via Retailigence

This is not only our first fictional map — it’s also our first published map in Europe. We’ve added navigation, but trust it at your own risk – the walls and staircases of Hogwarts are subject to random shifts. There are 10 castle levels filled with your favorite places and complete with nifty descriptions:

Snape’s Private Potion Store:

“Monkswood and wolfsbane, bezoars galore

Veritaserum and liquid luck in store

Rat tail, beetle eye, sopophorous bean

For any elixir or concoction you please

Gather your ingredients before class begins

Just don’t let Snape catch you breaking in!”

The Divination Tower:

“To sense more than just stars deep into the night

To decipher tea leaves and possess the Sight

Broaden your mind, you must look beyond

No use for textbooks or tricks of the wand

Does your Inner Eye See? Are you gifted inside?

Divination will lift you and open your eyes”

Here’s a screenshot of the ground floor as seen on an iPad:

We do want give credit to DeviantArt user Hogwarts-Castle for fabulous drawings of Hogwarts and the Harry Potter Wiki for many of the room descriptions. We also want to thank Anita Subramanyam, Chitra Subramanyam and Roma Parekh for helping us come up with a number of hidden gems.

Be sure to send us any feedback or ideas for room names! We would love to continue updating the map. And, finally, if you want your own Marauders Map, we’d love to map out your school for you!

CTO Prakash Narayan will be presenting at the TelecomCouncil’s Mobile Forum, as part of a panel discussing “hyperlocal” mobility. He will be joined by Mayank Mehta, Product Management Director at CoolIris, and Marcus Wandell, CEO of Antengo. The event is being held at Ericsson in San Jose, from 8:30 AM to 2:00 PM and the panel will be starting at 9:45 AM.

Later in the day, both Prakash Narayan and Micello VP Business Anil Agarwal will be taking part in GIS Day 2010 at UC Berkeley’s Mulford Hall. They will be speaking about the importance of indoor maps from 5:30 to 6:00 PM.

Hope to see you there!

Ankit will be joined by a number of other panelists, including Dhana Pawar, the co-founder of Mobmark; Deepak Thomas, General Manager at eBay Classifies; Iryna Newman, Head of Mobile Marketing for SendMe; and Michael Bayle, VP of Monetization and Marketing at Amobee. The event will be moderated by Stephen Burke, the VP of Mobile Strategy at Resource Interactive.

The panel begins at 7 p.m. tonight and will be discussing the latest trends mobile marketing and how they are helping to shape this nascent industry. Register here.

Micello was given a perfect score and was one of three finalists! Check out Mashable’s write-up of the event here.

[What’s the] next Location Killer App? So what’s next? Development of indoor location will unleash new apps and enhance existing apps that are currently confined to an outdoor experience only. “The most suitable technology for indoors,” asserts Kanwar Chadha of CSR, “is a combination of GNSS with accelerometers, gyros, and Wi-Fi.” People assume that what they can do outdoors, they can seamlessly do indoors, like geotagging a photo. Chadha adds that another challenge is that the indoors is not mapped. This is not a small undertaking, and the burden may rest on facilities providing content providers with mapping. Consumer-saturated locales like shopping areas, stadiums, resorts, hotel, and convention centers will likely be the first.

It’s not easy and it’s no small undertaking, but we couldn’t be happier shouldering the indoor “burden”!

Here are the other nine startups we’ll be competing against:

Empire Avenue

Foodspotting

Manumatix

Miso

Postling

SellSimply

SocialSmack

TellApart

Zozolo

… Wish us luck!

Even the world of startups and tech is showing off its inventive Halloween goods. Don’t yet have a costume idea? Pick up the Scoopertino iWear Steve Jobs theme kit – complete with 34-inch denim jeans, a black turtle-neck shirt, and wire frame glasses. Terrified about the Rise of the Infographics? Then Candynomics will make you turn over in your grave. How about a sweet treat? The UPC scanning/savings app Checkpoints will be giving away the equivalent of a $1 gift card for every two referrals you get to sign up – but only until Halloween.  Need to find your way around the mall? Navigate to the novelty store in Halloween style with the Halloween themed indoor maps available on our free Micello app. In a similar vein, find your closest Haunted House via MapQuest! Itching for some shriek-inducing gameplay? Check out 20 spooky iPhone and iPad games that will make your blood run cold. How about some dead time? Sit down, relax and carve a Foursquare-themed pumpkin (or your favorite startup!) Of course, you know things are really getting grim when VCs are getting into the mix…

Here are some screenshots of our new theme in action. Check it out today on your iPhone or Android!