# Review of Web Mapping: Eras, Trends and Directions
## 3 Web Mapping Eras of Development
### Web Mapping Eras
#### Mobile and Location-Based Web Mapping Era  
The advent of mobile hand-held devices, including personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablets and smartphones [64], opened up the opportunities for users to access and interact with online maps irrespective of their place and time. Not only web access to maps, but particularly access to the geographic location of the device became crucial to the rapid development of location-based services (LBS) [65; 66]. [PERSON] [26] identified the contribution of LBS to the provision of online GIS services as one of the significant developments in 2005. The use of cell phone tower triangulation techniques and GPS-enabled smartphones enabled the location of users to be identified, via their smartphones, and embedded in emerging location-aware mobile and desktop apps [26; 65; 67]. Access to a user's location in real-time paved the way for the development of a wide range of applications including marketing nearby retail and restaurant services, navigating from the current location to geocoded addresses, and playing location-based games. The applications for LBS include emergency services, marketing, navigation, traffic monitoring, weather monitoring, health, sports, tracking, etc. Not only can users retrieve information relative to their geographic location, but they can also participate in their environment by contributing information via apps (for example, see [PERSON] [68]). This is related to a branch of the new Citizen Cyberscience called participatory sensing [69]. An example is the Via Regina app developed by [PERSON] et al. [70] for tourist participatory sensing, where users can share locations, descriptions, photos and ranking of elements they are collecting while visiting and exploring tourist sites (Figure 4). Figure 4: The Via Regina app: an example of participatory sensing. Users, after sensing, can view their own data (My Map) as well as that contributed by others (Everyone). Figure 3: Virtual globe based on NASA World Wind for sharing and managing user generated content. Vehicle-mounted GPS and cellular-enabled navigation devices, either standalone or via smartphone apps, have transformed the transport industry by providing location-based routing information, live road conditions, re-routing suggestions based on empirical route modeling, and access to services and other information in proximity to current location. Health-based apps track personal daily movements or sports-based activities such as walking, running and cycling (e.g., RunKeeper, Strava). Location-based gaming includes such activities as geocaching, where players use their smartphone location to navigate to certain places to find and replace treasures [71], and Foursquare for users to discover places, find their friends and obtain points as they frequent certain venues and move about daily life [72]. In addition to location, apps are now also using augmented reality, which combines real and virtual reality by overlaying virtual objects and information on the real world as seen through the smartphone camera. Applications include discovering airplanes and ships in real-time, visualizing infrastructure that is hidden beneath the ground or behind walls, etc. Pokemon Go is an augmented reality game, recently released in July 2016, which encourages players to get out finding and interacting with their favorite Pokemon Go characters overlaid on the real world camera view [73]. A further development of location-based data capture relates to sensors that have location and sensor parameter data linked to the web. Mobile mapping refers to the capture of 2D and 3D data from a vehicle that is fitted with GPS and other sensing or imaging devices that may include photographic cameras, video, radar, radio, laser or LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) [74]. Sensor data may include environmental (e.g., temperature and rainfall), traffic monitoring, industrial process monitoring, health monitors (e.g., wearable sensors for elderly or emergency workers), webcam imagery and airborne sensor imagery [75].