Google Develops Parking Network For Open Spots & App Inventor To Open Up App Development

Open Spot users indicate when theyre leaving a spot. The phones location awareness indicates that persons location on the map and shows that information to other Open Spot users in the area.

Spots remain open for a maximum of 20 minutes. After 20 minutes parking spots expire. Color-coding indicates how long theyve been open and the probability that theyre still open.

The FAQs explain:

• Red pins are freshly-marked spots.
• Orange pins are spots marked over 5 minutes ago.
• Yellow pins are spots marked over 10 minutes ago.

Users gain (parking) Karma points for their participation.

Google has already developed a name for those who might try to fool the system and frustrate others: Griefers:

    We call these people griefers. Were watching for behavior that looks like a griefer spoofing parking spots. We have a couple of mechanisms available to make sure someone cant leave a bunch of fake parking spots. If we see this happening we will take steps to fix it.

Available parking inventory is created by users as they participate in the network. As more people use the system it will become more valuable and helpful. If it succeeds, you can probably also expect the data eventually to show up elsewhere in Google Maps for example.