Google Announces Tower Location

Was news to me, but Google now has a blog about mobile matters. The latest entry covers an interesting new item: New magical blue circle on your map. Note the mention that GPS will drain your mobile battery quickly. This method is far less accurate than GPS.

" .... My Location is a new beta technology from Google that uses cell tower identification to provide you with approximate location information, so it will work on phones without GPS. Simply fire up Google Maps for mobile, press [0], and the map will indicate your approximate location by centering on a blue circle ...

If you do have a GPS-enabled device, My Location can actually complement it. My Location kicks in faster than GPS in most cases, so you can access your location even faster on the map. It also works reliably indoors (unlike GPS) and doesn't drain your phone battery at the rate that GPS does.... "