Journalists say "Why NAVIBLOG?"

In an answer to a number of similar questions from journalists on this question, here is a slightly edited version of my answer.

Why NAVIBLOG?

* Although immersive searching (e.g., point-and-search) is definitely the future, current received knowledge used by most location-enabled or map services on the mobile is still the "point-search". Unfortunately this type of search has been offered by the likes of NaviWalk, GuruNavi, Google Local (mobile), Activo, Geovector and so on, that is, searching for a specific information set or physical location, and receiving a singular search result.

* At Naviblog we know that when gathering visual locational information, or even tactile locational information, human experience tends to lie in the interactive area between point-searches and field-of-view searches. For visual data, when you are looking for something around you your eyes focus on a number of point-locations in rapid succession, thus defining your field-of-view, then make your decision to home in on one location or another. As you do so, you keep focusing on a number of similar visual point-locations in order to direct yourself, but also as part of a continual visual search that might pick up something new of interest along the way.

Feeling around a room with the lights off is the same thing. You work through the environment by feeling your way along the walls or floor with hands and feet, by gathering a number of tactile point-locations that define your field-of-action, and allow you to home in on your next direction. Naturally, going shopping is the same thing, you shop around at a number of locations, define your field-of-action based on the info, then move to make - or not make - that purchase.

* Extending this search behaviour to web searching, the point-searches would be the NaviWalks and other singular-result GPS search engines, whereas the field-of-view checks would be more Google-like (2 keywords, 20,000 hits). The difference with the web is that you have access to an unlimited information pool, whereas with sensorial data you are limited by a sensorial "fog-of-war" that limits your sight/touch to a limited radius, and a thought-process "fog-of-war" that optimizes away all other sensorial data other than that which is central to your search. The result is a manageable set of location-info to work with, and you can respond to these search results immediately.

* By mimicking this human process of search info assimilation, Naviblog restricts searches to information in a perimeter radius of 100m around you, and shows multiple results on the same map interface. Hence you can click in and out of the point-search results on the map interface to reach the information, thus creating a field-of-action, as you would in a sensorial search. This allows people to make decisions very fast, based on a manageable set of search results.

Comparing with the usability of other services to ours... no contest, we win. Try it for yourself on au handsets » here.