Posts Tagged ‘applications’

Posted on December 13, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Top 143 Location-Based Articles from 2010

It’s that time of the year again. Time to take a look back at the year that defined mobile marketing and location-based apps. You could almost call 2010 the year of the check-in or the year that checkins went mainstream. Regardless the 2009 technology predictions were true. 2010 was all about location, location, location. Here’s a look back a the top 143 location articles from 2010.

What was the biggest location news of 2010 to you?

Posted on August 4, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Infographic: How Check-Ins Work in Location-Based Apps

Check-ins are the core action of location-based apps. They let your friends know where you are and businesses know that you have arrived at their location. But how do they work, who has access to the data and what can you do with the data? I’m glad you asked. Over the past few days I’ve been thinking creating a location-based infographic so I created a “How Check-ins Work In Location-Based Apps” infographic.

The goal of the infographic is to show how smartphone users check-in with location-based apps such as @TriOut, @Foursquare, @Gowalla, @Whrrl and more at businesses. Also to show privacy options, how location-based services partners can see your check-ins via APIs and location-based dashboards. I created two versions per feedback from friends/partner but as I tweeted this morning, I’ll let @Flowtown stick to creating shiny infographics.

How Check-Ins Work in Location-Based Apps version 1

How Check-Ins Work in Location-Based Apps version 2

Let me know which infographic you like and if you understand how the process works in the comments.

Posted on July 27, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

10 Ways Geolocation is Changing the World #10Ways

This post was written by Rob Reed. He is the founder of MomentFeed, a location-based marketing, strategy, and technology firm.

Location technologies are transforming how we experience, navigate, and ultimately better our world. From the global to the local, here are #10Ways geolocation is a positive force for good.

Social media has changed the world. It has revolutionized communications on a global scale, and the transformation continues with every status update, blog post, and video stream. The global citizenry has become a global network.

Since becoming widely adopted just a couple years ago, social media has supercharged social action, cause marketing, and social entrepreneurship. Indeed, the true value hasn’t been the technology itself but how we’ve used it. Today, a second wave of innovation is defining a new era and setting the stage for change over the coming decade.

Mobile technologies will extend the global online network to anyone with a mobile device while enabling countless local networks to form in the real world. We’ve decentralized media production and distribution. We’re doing the same for energy. And we’ll continue this trend for social networking, social action, and commerce.

The combined forces of smartphones, mobile broadband, and location-aware applications will connect us in more meaningful ways to the people, organizations, events, information, and companies that matter most to us—namely, those within a physical proximity of where we live and where we are. Can location-based services (LBS) change the world? Here are #10Ways:

1. Checking in for Good: If Gowalla and Foursquare have taught us anything, it’s that people respond to simple incentives. By offering badges, mayorships, and other intangible rewards, millions of people are checking in to the places they go. Apps like Whrrl take this a step further and enable like-minded “societies” to form on a local basis. The next step is for these apps to add greater purpose by encouraging more meaningful checkins and offering corresponding badges and stamps, thus mapping the cause universe. Or for a dedicated app to be developed that rewards conscious consumption, social responsibility, and civic engagement. Yes, the CauseWorld app features a cause element, but it’s not about cause-worthy places.

2. Eating Locally: Sustainability demands that we source our food as close to its point of production as possible. Many so-called locavores subscribe to the 100-mile diet, which requires that one “eat nothing—or almost nothing—but sustenance drawn from within 100 miles of their home.” Given the difficulty of accessing and verifying this information in order to live by this standard, there’s a geo-powered Locavore app. It gives you info on in-season foods, those coming in-season, farmer’s markets, and links to recipes. This rather simple app is clearly just the start. In time, location-aware apps will guide us not only to the grocery store or farmer’s market but through them. All the while identifying foods based on our particular diet or sensibility.

3. Political Organizing: In the next presidential election, politics will not only be local but location-enabled. We saw the power of social media in Obama’s 2008 landslide victory. In 2012, location-based apps and technologies will play a central role in how campaigns are organized, managed, and ultimately won. Much of this will be visible through mobile apps and location-aware browsers. Activists and volunteers will be more empowered. Voters will be more engaged in the moment, right down to casting their votes. Behind the scenes, though, we’ll see massive new sets of data available to campaigns for targeting, empowerment, and optimization. The party, candidate, and/or cause that has the best handle on geolocation will have a measurable advantage. (The Elections app will soon be updated for 2010.)

4. Finding Green Businesses: The web has effectively replaced the paper Yellow Pages as a way to find local businesses and services. However, this “stationary web” experience is quickly being supplanted by the mobile web and mobile applications, which give us access to this information when we most need it. The Yelp and Around Me apps are popular ways to find restaurants, coffee shops, or hotels wherever you are, but what about green-rated businesses? Greenopia has transformed its printed, local guides into a dynamic, nationwide mobile application that lets you find local, green-rated businesses in any category. No more paper and a much better experience. The Green Map app is another that facilitates discovery and connects us to local green environments.

5. Traveling More Efficiently: We’ve had access to GPS navigation systems and static traffic information for some time, but only now are we seeing the full potential of these technologies. With access to more detailed traffic information that is specific to your route and updated in real time, we can minimize congestion and maximize traffic flow (as much as physically possible). The new turn-by-turn MapQuest 4 Mobile app is a good start, as you can get traffic alerts specific to the route you program. However, user-generated information from apps like Trapster and Waze can crowdsource more specific details, such as whether to avoid an intersection due to a toxic chemical spill. Or, if you want to avoid automobiles altogether, Google Maps makes it easy to use public transportation and take a bike.

6. Scanning for Ethical Products: With online shopping, we’ve become accustomed to reading reviews and making comparisons before we buy. This can now be done in the physical world through games like MyTown and services like Stikybits. By scanning a product barcode using a smartphone camera, you can unlock a treasure of additional information (not to mention deals) that can help with your purchase. This might include where it was produced, how far it traveled, the reputation of the manufacturer, chemical contents, carbon footprint, or the full lifecycle analysis. Location-aware applications can also transform commerce itself by giving us better access to local inventories and locally-produced goods. Whether it’s fruits and vegetables or books and electronics, if something can be found within blocks of your current location, it makes no sense to ship it from afar.

7. Networking Neighborhoods: One of the hottest categories in geolocation is neighborhood networking. The vision for many of these apps is to strengthen the very fabric of our communities. With DeHood, you can keep track of what’s happening in your neighborhood, share your favorite places, and grease the wheels for actually meeting people. After all, if you’ve made contact through the app, it’s a lot easier to say “Hello” in the real world. Blasterous is another that lets you share information locally, whereas BlockChalk does this on an anonymous basis. Finally, NeighborGoods uses your street address to facilitate one-to-one borrowing and trading of useful stuff. In the end, making connections with your neighbors can lead to safer, more productive, and more sustainable communities.

8. Tracking Environmental Disasters: The size and scope of environmental disasters appears to be growing. In 2008, we had the Tennessee coal ash spill, which was billed as “the largest environmental disaster of its kind in the United States.” And that was before we realized it was three times bigger than originally estimated. More recently, the BP oil spill set daily records for “largest environmental disaster in the U.S. ever.” In each case, geolocation technologies can be used by engaged citizens to monitor and track the effects. They can be used by response teams to coordinate containment and cleanup efforts. Ultimately, these technologies can be used to accurately measure the size and impact of a disaster in order to better understand its damages and costs.

9. Viewing the World Through an Eco Lens: Augmented reality (AR) follows geolocation as one of the hot trends in mobile technology. It enables you to view the world through a smartphone camera (or similar device) and see layers of geo-specific content or information. One of the most popular apps is Layar, an augmented reality browser/platform that lets you choose specific data layers or experiences. The potential for green- and cause-related content is tremendous. You might view green-rated businesses, LEED-certified buildings, or virtual GHG emissions as they enter the atmosphere. Combined with smart meter technology, you could see the most efficient and inefficient homes around you in real time. And for the cynics among us, you could view our mountains, forests, rivers, and oceans as they once were…before the effects of climate change and so many environmental disasters.

10. Capturing the Moment: Better access to information about what’s happening around us—right now—can dramatically improve quality of life. This sense of “geospatial awareness” is possible through today’s smartphones, whereby a piece of content or information—a moment—is captured and preserved based on the unique time and place in which it occurred. It is essentially to document spacetime. Protests, natural disasters, sporting events, parties, political crises…real-time information about anything happening anywhere at any time, as well as the history of what happened. This will take several years and a number of different applications to realize. In the end, though, it will revolutionize how we access and consume content. It will complete the democratization and decentralization of news and information…based on time and location.

Cautionary note: Privacy is the single biggest issue in the LBS industry. It’s important to understand what information you are sharing with regard to your location and with whom.

Author’s note: We’ll be hosting geolocation events for Social Media Week in Los Angeles this September. This is the third in Max Gladwell‘s #10Ways series of distributed blog posts. It was published simultaneously on as many as 300 blogs.

Posted on July 2, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

The unofficial check-in guidelines for using location-based services

Location-based services continue to be the hot topic of the marketing and tech space. New location-based apps are launching weekly and existing location based apps are growing their user base faster than you can check-in into to @starbucks. But with everyone checking into to what everyone is called the next big thing I think it’s time for some unofficial guidelines for checking in using a few of the popular location based services.

Below are a few guidelines for using  location-based services.

Adding locations:

• Add real locations only
• Add as much information about the location as possible (address, phone, web, tags)
• You can add events/virtual locations if they have been approved by the organizer
• Don’t add fake mobile locations (someone’s boots, paints or computers)
• It’s ok to add a location that’s or check into a location that’s close to your home and check in there instead of your home.

When to check-in

• Walking or driving to a location if it’s in visible eye sight
• When you’re leaving location
• While at a location
• Don’t share too many check-ins with your other social networks or they will unfollow/friend you.

Places you should think twice about checking into:

• Banks
• Courts
• Jail
• Strip clubs
• Bathrooms
• Police Stations
• Day care centers
• Schools
• Your Home

Check-ins that shouldn’t count

• Walking by stores in the mall or at outside venues
• Driving by locations
• Parking lot check-ins where you don’t actually go into the location but you see it.

Adding Photos to locations:

• No porn photos using location-based apps
• Food photos are ok 95% of the time
• Post photos that can show where you’re at or what you’re doing

Leaving Reviews and tips:

• Leave honest reviews and tips about your experience
• Don’t spam by promoting another businesses in a review or tip
• Don’t insult people or leave private information in tips.

Adding Friends:

• Decide how you’re going to use location-based apps first
• Optional: Accept every friend request
• Optional: Block everyone except family members
• Optional: Only accept friend request form people who you know and trust

Choosing a Location-based service

• Pick one that works great with your mobile device
• Pick one that your local community uses
• Try them all at least once
• Pick one that rewards you for using the service.

Check-in Specials:

• Take advantage of as many check-in specials as possible before everyone else does
• Don’t over brag that you received a free cup of coffee for checking in or you’re on top of the leader-board or received a few badges. (most of your friends don’t care)
• It’s ok to let your social graph know that you received a check-in special

No stalking…. PERIOD!

Also see @Whrrl’s community guidelines

for digg: ab994cd58c0940429bd1b8cc2d4ecc74

Did I leave anything out? What are some rules/guildes you would like to see people implement using location-based services?

Posted on May 5, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

9 location-based iPhone applications you may have never heard of

As you all know location-based applications have taken off since 2010. Some old one such as Brightkite, Loopt and Whrrl continue to grow their user base and evolve while some of the newer location-based application who are barely over a year old such as My Town, Gowalla and Foursquare continue to catch all the headlines from the popular tech blogs. Regardless
location-based applications are hot and just wait until you see more of the augmented reality apps to be released.

A few months ago I did a survey asking readers to vote on their favorite location-based application out of 17 different apps. Since then a few more have launched and some continue to fly under the radar.

Here’s a list of 9 location-based iPhone applications you may have never heard of.

1. Flock

2. GraffitiGeo

3. Nulaz

4. Stalqer

5. Wikitude

6. Friendsaroundme

7. Rally Up

8. CauseWorld

9. GeoLorean

Update from Brett:

10. Pegshot

You may or may not have heard of these 9 location-based applications but if you have, out of the 9 which one is your favorite or the one you use the most?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Fayetteville Street Mall,Raleigh,United States