We all know the impact of geocoding on the future of the internet. Just see the noise as Microsoft switches its UK mapping to Multimap.

And while Nokia and its peers play catch up with the Apple iPhone, the device 'most likely to' is the nuvifone, Garmin's expensive bet that GPS will become as indispensable as SMS, MP3 and Facebook - sorry FriendFeed - on your mobile.

Which is why the decision of the New York Times to code its stories so that they can be added as a layer on Google Earth is so significant. If GPS becomes a commodity found on most mobile devices, linking media to location makes perfect sense.  

But there's more to this than simply spreading the news. It also establishes the New York Times as a global brand in a completely new way. Take a virtual spin around the planet and it's the only media corporate logo that pops up everywhere from Santiago to Minnesota to Tokyo. What's more, it inevitably connects the brand to centres of government, finance, and war zones - places that are largely familiar to most readers.

It's a smart move for an organisation that has perhaps only two or three other competitors as the global newspaper of record. Don't be surprised to see the Godfathers of The London Times, or perhaps The Guardian, in talks with a Google competitor. Oh.