Google Maps, Virtual Earth, MyWeb 2.0--the world is being introduced to (and enthusiastically embracing) a steady stream of new services based on location technologies. Where 2.0, a new O'Reilly conference that took place June 29-30 in San Francisco, honed in on the new tech sector coalescing around these location-related technologies that promise to transform and personalize the way we all engage the Web and the world around us.

Location-enhanced products and services are generating excitement among developers, technologists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and bean counters alike. "Mash-up" was a phrase heard frequently throughout the conference, referring to the revving up of one-dimensional information--such as apartment listings, traffic patterns, and crime stats--by overlaying it with mapping information. Location technologies are already having an impact on a wide variety of industries, and their effect on privacy, gaming, advertising, social applications, and search were also discussed.

Two other (distinctly non-technical) mash-ups in evidence at the conference were between generations and communities: "tribal elders" from cartography, engineering, and geography came together with the emerging
generation of hackers, web developers, and search gurus in sessions, on panel discussions, and over lunch.

Several announcements were made at Where 2.0, including:

-Google publicly released Google Earth, which uses high-resolution satellite and aerial images to let users travel to any address on the globe.

-Microsoft and ORBIMAGE, a satellite imagine company, announced plans to deliver expanded international satellite coverage for MSN Virtual Earth.

-Yahoo released a set of programming tools allowing outside programmers to build their own web mapping applications that tap into the data in Yahoo! Maps.

-Zoto, an online photo site, announced it will sponsor and host Geo Project USA, the first initiative to index and photograph each of the more than 4,554,000 "minute confluence points" in the United States.