Google HotPot: The Name Explanation, and More Related News [GOOG, #google]

Over 4000 people read my last post on Google HotPot, mostly because it was one of the featured posts on the Google Finance page yesterday morning. So it looks like Google HotPot is of interest to people who are tracking Google’s stock prices, which I found telling on many levels – who tracks stocks besides investors?

As promised, here’s the link round-up. But I thought I should include a few updates on Google Places and Google HotPot that you might not be aware of yet.

First, they finally explained the HotPot name. I would have guessed they were talking about Hot Potato, but that’s just me. I went back and read a Google LatLong post that had a tidbit about how you can protect your privacy in Google HotPot by using a nickname. I’d also glossed over the fact that the reviews you do in HotPot are in a special section called “Reviews by Google Users.” And even though the Android app for Maps already had personal recommendations, the new HotPot style has reportedly been included in the update.

At least as interesting as how Google HotPot works with Google Places was another article about the upgrades to Street View. I use Google Maps for turn by turn directions on my iPod frequently, and I found it really sexy, let me tell you why.

With my partial disability, I can’t drive even with modifications to my car, and haven’t been able to for years. I’m getting to the point where I’ll be able to soon, so I try to get out a lot more so I can learn my surroundings as a driver rather than as a passenger.

In my area, some versions of chains are better than others. Let’s say I want to go to McDonald’s or the Post Office. There’s usually one a little closer to me than the other. But one Post Office might have, shall we say, really ghetto employees, and the other will have perfectly professional people. (And I don’t mean ghetto by ethnicity, I mean in behavior. Ghetto comes in all shades, you heard it here first.)

I’ll want to go out of my way to go the one that has professional people, even if that one happens to be in a more economically downtrodden part of town, or is a few miles further away. Or maybe I want the McDonald’s near the grocery store, so I can pick up something healthier for my sister and I, while the three year olds enjoy their fries.

The problem is, I know places by what they look like in my memory. I don’t have a perfect photographic memory, but I’m one of those people who can open the fridge, close the door and tell you what was on each shelf and where. Point being, I file by what things, locations, people, look like, in my brain.

Smarter street navigation solves that by giving me a panoramic view of what the location looks like at the intersection! It’s so neat. You have to try it next time you use the mobile Google Maps App. I bet the technology from the recent Google Earth upgrade has will spice this much even more.

For example, what if you could use Place Search to find a hotel on the Strip in Vegas, HotPot to pick the ones your friends suggest, and then a Google-Earth enhanced version of Google Maps to see the approximate view from a hotel room?

I think that would be wicked. And the technology is already there, its just a case of whether Google will mash it together, or someone will build an app.

We may have more Google Tuesdays later. If not, the Google HotPot link round-up will be later in the week.