Whobar

I launched a new web site this weekend. It's called whobar.net. I felt the need to learn about using Google's mapping API. The tools they have made available for free public use are so powerful, I feel I would be a fool not to take advantage. However, these things always require a bit of a learning curve.

I generally like to marry my learning experiences to something at least potentially useful to other people. I thought about what kind of maps I could build that would be new and different.

I decided to collect reports from individuals about the cell phone signal strength they are experiencing at any given address around the (Google-enabled) globe. Then I could plot color coded points on a map showing visually how strong the signal was from different mobile carriers.

"Can you hear me now?"

It won't be too useful to anyone until there are a lot of points plotted on the map, which means thousands of people will have to be kind enough to report their signal strength without getting anything meaningful in return.

Who knows if this will happen, but at least now the world has the opportunity to make it happen.

Whobar!