Location, Location, Location, that what was said at the end of 2009 of being the next big thing in “social media’ or marketing or just the next big thing. Has it lived up to all the hype? I would say so but I’m a little bias because of TriOut. Regardless as more brands launch location based promotions and location-based startups just “launch” the location-based services/marketing industry is truly one to watch. Starting today I’m going to post a weekly round of location based blog post from around the social web. You know I wanted to call the post “This week in Location” but I’ll let @Jason and @leolaporte hold on to the “This week in” name for now. 🙂 Here are the location based post round-up for the week.
Brand Security Issues With Geo-Listings
by: @smartfinds
The importance of protecting your brand stems from local consumers performing a significant volume of searches for businesses, products and services in their local area. They look up local information through web searches and through mobile searches. As they look up this information, they get to see pictures, videos, consumer reviews about your business, products or services. If this information is not appealing to the local consumer they will avoid your business.
Location History, “Footstreams” & Aggregated Check-in Data Will Transform LBS
by: @gsterling
And while the individual location history is interesting to review, it’s the aggregated information — such as being collected by Skyhook — that will provide fascinating and valuable “real world analytics” to retailers, restaurants and numerous other types of businesses and marketers.
Where Have I Been? Get Your Answer with the Google Location History Dashboard
by: @GoogleMobile
We’re really excited to make Latitude and your location more useful to you, but we definitely understand that your privacy is important. Just as before, Google Location History is entirely opt-in only and your location history is available privately to you and nobody else. Additionally, you may be asked to periodically re-enter your password when opening any Location History page, even if you’re signed in to your Google Account already (just to make sure you’re really you). Of course, you may always delete any or all of your location history in the Manage History tab or disable Location History at any time.
DeHood: A Location-Based Social Network for Your Neighborhood
by: @fredericl
While DeHood definitely has great potential, the app currently suffers from the simple fact that it doesn’t have a lot of users yet. Given that other networks like Gowalla and FourSquare already have a lot of momentum (though not the feature set of DeHood), it will be hard for DeHood (and other companies that want to enter this space) to persuade users to switch networks and build up their social networks from scratch again.
Check-Ins, Geo-Fences, And The Future Of Privacy
by: @erickschonfeld
When it comes to geo-privacy there are two extremes. Foursquare makes you explicitly check into each place where you want to share your location. That is good for privacy—you only have yourself to blame if you broadcast your location from the strip club—but it makes using the application a bit of a chore. You have to remember to pull out your phone every time you enter a new place and look like a dork while you are checking in. It is also rude when you are at a bar or restaurant with friends and everyone (all the guys, usually) are looking down at their cell phones, but I digress.
Foursquare Nearing 1 Million Checkins Per Day
by: @Jbruin
Foursquare Co-Founder Dennis Crowley says that the 10 plus checkins per second figure was on a Wednesday night, and that the company is averaging 700,000 checkins per day. He projects to hit the 1 million mark by mid to late June.
Millions of Incorrect Listings Plague Location-Based Services
by: @fredericl
Currently, there is no single location database with perfectly accurate information that all of the different vendors can access – and that’s probably a good thing, as it allows developers to use the databases that suit their needs best. If Placecast’s data is correct, however, an error rate that ranges from 8% to 40% is simply too high for consumer products that want to guide people to the right location in the real world.
Market for Location-Based Services is Heating Up for Startups
by: @chcameron
As more tools like SimpleGeo make the incorporation of sophisticated technologies and infrastructures faster and more cost-effective for startups, the opportunities to create truly innovative location-based services will continue to grow.
From SocialWayne.com this week:
Podcast #11 – All about Location with @LouisGray on Foursquare, Google, East vs West check-ins & Facebook privacy
The value of the check in using location based services for businesses and customers. Time to measure those check-ins
Are there other posts you have read about the location-based industry the past week? Let me know in the comments.
