Android just got that much better: Google has just released an Android app called Open Spot that lets users leaving parking spots share their spots with other users searching for parking. How cool is that? It gets cooler. Open Spot has three degrees applied to a parking spot based on the amount of time since it was marked as open wit red pins for new open spots, orange for spots that have been open for over five minutes and yellow for over ten. After 20 minutes, Google takes down the open spot (Google also acknowledges that 20 minutes, especially in densely populated areas, is a long time for a spot to stay open, but they counter that with a “the more info the better” argument – we’ll have to see if people get a bit of parking rage when they show up 18 minutes later and the spot is gone). Google even Read More

Google's new Open Spot Android app turns finding open parking spots into a social game. You earn "karma points" for marking down available parking spots while others earn open parking spots by tracking down those marked spots. Each time you mark down an available parking spot in Open Spot, you gain a karma point. The more karma points you get, the better you feel about yourself, or something like that. The marked spot shows up in the Open Spot app for 20 minutes and is shown in a time-sensitive color: red for freshly marked, orange for spots marked 5 minutes ago and yellow for spots marked 10 minutes ago. Parking spot applications have been done before, but not with the big G attached. But even with Google, Open Space's success hinges on getting enough users in the game. If it doesn't, we're just dealing with another Buzz. Android 2.0+. [Open Spot] Read More

Jason Kincaid currently works as a writer at TechCrunch. He grew up in Danville, California and later relocated to UCLA in Los Angeles, California, where he studied biology with a minor in ‘Society and Genetics’. You can reach him at jkincaidtc@gmail.com (he has other addresses too, so don’t worry if you have a different one). → Learn More Sick of circling the city streets in your car, looking for a spot — any spot — that you can squeeze into? Google may have the answer, or at least the very beginnings of one, though it’s going to heavily rely on the good deeds of your peers to be a success. Meet Google Open Spot, the latest addition to Google Labs, which has just released a new application for Android phones. The service is really straightforward: fire up the Android application (it doesn’t look like there’s a web-based version yet), and you’ll see a Read More

...to main | skip to sidebar Crash Dev Seeking useful patterns wherever they appear Friday, July 9, 2010 Google Open Spot for Android: If I still liv... Read More

We've all been there. You're driving around a crowded city looking for a place to park and having terrible luck. Well next time, instead of forking over several dollars to park in a garage, just pull out your Android phone and look for a helping hand from a kindly spot sharer. At least that's what Google wants you to do. The company has just added a new application to GoogleLabs that will help drivers find open parking spots shared with them by fellow app users. The app, named OpenSpot, is very straightforward. If you are looking for parking, simply pull up the app to see a map of nearby openings. Right now, since the application is brand new, there's not likely to be much to find, but eventually over time as more people use the app, it could prove to be a useful parking tool. If you are leaving a parking Read More