Micello, one of the more exciting startups to debut at the most recent DEMO conference, is a mobile mapping solution that is basically “Google Maps for the indoors.” Where traditional mapping services show everything in the world outside, Micello’s goal is to map the world’s inside spaces – places like shopping malls, convention centers, retail stores, airports, college campuses, and more. Today, the company is launching its service by way of a mobile application for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
The free Micello application now delivers over 250 maps of shopping malls across the U.S. with more being daily. At launch time, the majority of those maps are within the San Francisco Bay area, but the company promised at DEMO that they would have over 5000 places mapped across the country by the end of 2010. However, for those in the supported locales, Micello’s free app is going to be a must-have.
The maps created by the company are geo-coded to the real world, allowing you to see their exact location as pins on a map in relation to other area landmarks and infrastructure like roads and parking lots. You can search for a particular indoor map using the included search box (for example, “IKEA”) or, once the map is loaded, search within the app for a particular section (for example, in IKEA you could search for “desks”).
