March 16, 2006
Gawker puts celeb stalking on the map
New York celebrity life just got harder with yesterday's launch of Gawker.com's "Stalker "feature that can post celeb locations on the Internet, complete with a map, within minutes of each sighting". The New York Daily News reports via Agenda Inc..
Celebrity sightings are sent to tips@gawker.com, Gawker then posts the brief description and where they are using Google Maps on their new feature page Stalker. "Anyone reading Gawker can locate their whereabouts as soon as they come in — as close to a live sighting as possible". For instance:
Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz
1800 BROADWAY
Mar 15th, 2006 @ 1pm
I saw Justin Timberlake & Cameron Diaz eating lunch together at Whole Foods Columbus Circle today at 1:00. Both were wearing hats and dressed very casually (Diaz had absolutely no makeup on). Still hardly anyone seemed to notice them.
Not everyone is happy."As innovative as it might be, it dangerously puts these people in harm's way. Somebody's going to get hurt," warned flack Leslie Sloane Zelnik, who represents Lohan, Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher and other soft targets."
"These people are trying to lead a normal life, and I think at some point the government is going to have to step in and regulate this. I really think this crosses a line."
Sending in geotagged cameraphone shots is an obvious next step, if not by Gawker, by someone else. The technology already exists.
Related:
- - Geocoding Photos: The Future Is Now - Merkitys, and "open-source software that gives your cell phone the capability of uploading photos to Flickr and automatically tagging them with location-specific metadata."
..."The technology already has been possible, but Merkitys' innovation is to make it automatic. Clearly the implications of this are tremendous, both for professional photojournalism and for amateur photography."
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