Google Inc. has launched Gears Geolocation, an API for mobile and desktop browsers to provide location-based services.

Two third-party developers are launching the first location-enabled Web applications on Windows Mobile using this platform. The Gears Geolocation API can determine a consumer's location using nearby mobile-phone towers or GPS.

"This could open up developers to leverage location in ways they have not been able to up until now," said Neil Strother, Kirkland, WA-based analyst at JupiterResearch.

"It could help in targeting ads, but consumers are either going to Web sites or using applications and being asked for permission to deploy ads, so there has to be a respect for privacy," he said.

European travel site Lastminute.com has location-enabled its new mobile restaurant finder. It will help consumers find restaurants near them without requiring them to type in their location.

Locals and tourists in Britain can go to fonefood at m.lastminute.com, click the "Find your location" link on the home page and select the type of restaurant they want.

Lastminute.com will automatically work out which neighborhood and city they are in and find matching restaurants.

Rummble is a new social discovery tool that lets consumers recommend places to visit and see personalized recommendations from friends.

Consumers can go to m.rummble.com and click on the "Update location with Gears" link on the home page to see the "Rummbles" closest to them.

These two applications make use of the Gears Geolocation API.

Google provides this service for free to both developers and users.

Gears is available on IE Mobile on mobile and Internet Explorer and Firefox on desktop.

To use the location-enabled Lastminute.com and Rummble Web applications, consumers will need a Windows Mobile device that supports GPS or mobile-phone-ID lookup.

Compatible devices include the Samsung Blackjack II and HTC Touch Dual.

In the future, Gears will be available on more mobile platforms, including Android devices.

Gears will always tell consumers when a site wants to access their location for the first time. They can either allow or deny that site permission.

Consumers can download and install Gears at http://gears.google.com, http://m.lastminute.com and http://m.rummble.com.

Gears now implements the W3C Geolocation specification, which Google helped to define in collaboration with Microsoft and Mozilla.

The goal for Gears is to advance browser capabilities and part of that is helping to define future Web standards.

"From a marketing standpoint, LBS should be more user directed," Mr. Strother said. "If I do a search on my phone, I'm volunteering that I want to know what's around me and that advertisers can know where I am.

"Location is important, but tying it to the ad component is another half step," he said. "To get to next step, clearly advertisers want to target market by location, but this technology also has to serve the end user."

Since the end user isn't going to be looking for advertising, marketers should ask, "What will the mobile user be interested in doing for their own needs?"

LBS could enable multiplayer game playing among handsets, where players could ask their phone to show their friends within, say, a two-mile radius.

Gears Geolocation API could have an impact on applications ranging from maps, navigation and travel information to news, sports and entertainment.

"Marketer need to find ways to provide entertainment such as headlines from ESPN or information from a site like CBS News or a financial site, a travel site, and tying that to advertising," Mr. Strother said. "A travel setting opens up possibilities for companies in marketing, but it has to be tied to the end user.

"You have to be careful, just because this API is available, marketers aren't going to jump into this immediately," he said.

"IT could be clever if Facebook or other social networks could come up with an application that's free and ad-supported and convince people that there's a benefit, let them know who's around them at that time and make money on it through targeted advertising."