Some location-based apps work well on their own. If you’re looking for a restaurant or movie theater, for instance, you can use one of many services that offers that type of information by accessing your GPS system. There are others that require more social participation. Google’s latest product, Open Spot, is one of those. The application allows users to declare parking spots open when they leave them, making it easier for other users in the area to search and find these open spots. It sounds like a service that everyone can get on board with. That’s a good thing, because Open Spot is going to need massive participation in order for it to be effective.
There is nothing quite as frustrating as driving around a city for 15, 20, 30 minutes looking for not only an open spot, but a spot large enough for your vehicle. There are so many instances where curbside parking gets ugly. One car parks improperly and it throws off the entire street. What results is the creation of a few intermittent spots that won’t fit a car larger than a Mini. If one car moved a spot would open, but leave it to that guy in the middle to have a day-long meeting. Open Spot, if widely adopted, can help save that frustration.
Engadget gave the app a spin, and it worked to their liking. They did make a good point about adding comments to the spaces. That’s something I think we’ll definitely see in a future release. The best part about the comments is that they’re simple and possibly permanent. For instance, when one person marks the spot as metered (hopefully noting the meter hours), then there need be no future comments. Google has the idea covered in most other respects, including a time-coded meter that shows how long ago the spot was marked as open.
The biggest factor in Open Table’s ultimate success or failure is the adoption rate. This has been an issue with some Google services, including Buzz and Wave. Open Spot does have more practical benefits, though, so there’s a good chance people will see the value in it (whereas they saw Buzz as Twitter and Wave as email+IM). You can check it out at http://openspot.googlelabs.com/, or by finding it in the Market.
