Mobile Google Maps to Bring GPS-Like Positioning to iPhone?

News.com's blog reports that Google is set to launch a new feature in Google Maps for Mobile that will automatically set our location even in phones that lack a global positioning system (GPS) device.

This "My Location" feature uses the same technology as Navizon and triangulates your location based on nearby cell phone towers. This positioning technology is said to be accurate within 10 city blocks.

The My Location feature "complements" GPS functionality, because it works indoors, doesn't drain the battery as much as GPS does, and is much faster (a few seconds compared with what can be a few minutes on GPS), according to Lee.

The new feature is launching as a "beta" as Google builds the database of cell towers from people using Google Maps.

Google Maps for Mobile is available for a number of phones including the iPhone. The iPhone's version, however, is not yet upgradable to this new beta version. Apple has indicated it plans on deploying new features to the iPhone over time, so it seems likely that this feature may find its way into a future iPhone software update.

A Youtube video demonstrates the new feature for Google Maps.