Google Transit released

web

Google always give us some surprise, a new service named Google Transit has been released in beta test. With open API for Google Maps, nothing but your imagination stops you building creative applications.

Here is a wild idea to create the GPS application using Google maps:

  1. Build an Firefox plugin/standalone web server to communicate with GPSd, convert the NEMA format data to standard XML data source
  2. Inject the Javascript to Google Maps webpage with GreaseMonkey plugin, which would fetch the data from the plugin/webserver, and show the current position in the map.

Update: here is the application powered by greasemonkey.

More advanced features in mind:

  • Cache Google map meta data and reuse it when offline.
  • Voice navigation