Location based apps, location-based services and location-bases startups are still on the rise as last week ESPN and Loopt both launched new location-based apps. Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley was featured on CNN.com and the NY Times added it’s name to the list of location-based services. Here’s a list of some of the location-based news from the last week that you may have missed.
ESPN Stamps Their Passport to the Geo-Location Game
by: @ahr19
ESPN has created an app that gives them their first entry into the geo-location check-in game like Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt and Brightkite. ESPN Passport is scheduled to be released in time for the beginning of the World Cup in June which is expected to be a polarizing social media worldwide event.
The New York Times Fights Back against Foursquare and Yelp
by: @lawrencecoburn
As of today, The New York Times is fighting back.
Their recently launched geolocation app / city guide called “The Scoop” hit the app store today, and it’s a pretty nice effort.
Here are the primary components:
The Sifty Fifty gives you a list of the 50 best restaurants according to Sam Sifton, restaurant critic of The Times.
21 Unique Location Examples from Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl, and MyTown
by: @Jakrose
Location based social networks are the current darling of social media. Foursquare is leading the way with what seems like a new Fourtune 500 endorsement each week. It is unclear where all these tools will lead us. Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl, and even MyTown are getting a lot of attention and a lot of businesses, big and small, are experimenting.
With Foursquare, life is a virtual game
by: @jdsutter
Crowley sees these video-game-style rewards as reason enough for Foursquare users to make more effort to explore the real world — and, in the process, to have more fun with their daily lives.
That puts the app, which launched in 2009, right in line with what seems to be his personal philosophy: “Things shouldn’t be so super-serious all the time.”
TweetDeck Taps Foursquare For Location Column
by: @BrothaTech
As hot as geo-location social networking currently is, why wouldn’t you expect TweetDeck to give its users the ability to add a location column? TweetDeck didn’t just decide to reinvent the wheel with its own client. TweetDeck decided to reach out to the geo-location giant Foursquare, and integrate its already tried and true features into columns that users can customize to their liking.
Google Places Updates Dashboard But We Still Want Google Analytics Integration
by: @bikenrocker
It looks like Google Places made a couple minor changes today to their dashboard interface. Besides a slight design change incorporating good use of background contrast, the big modifications were:
Powermat Partners With MyTown for Two-Fold Promotion
by: Brandy Shaul
The promotion between the two companies runs until June 13, and in that time, users who check-in at any supported Powermat retailer (Best Buy, Target, and Bed Bath and Beyond are just three examples) will receive Powermat branded virtual items within the game.
To take the promotion once step further, users are given added incentive to physically interact with the Powermat products in store in the form of a contest that will see all who do so entered to win a Powermat Wireless Charging System for their iPhone, which is otherwise available to purchase for around $70, depending on the retailer.
Foursquare listed on Time’s 50 Worst Inventions
by: @TIME
From the zany to the dangerous to the just plain dumb, here is TIME’s list (in no particular order) of some of the world’s bright ideas that just didn’t work out.
Loopt changes faces with LooptStar; looks even more like Foursquare.
by: @BradTNW
We do like that it is built on Facebook Connect, which gives people a bit more reason to do social check-in, and ads another social media function to the light. Instead of having to connect your Foursquare with Facebook, native integration is a good move.
From SocialWayne.com last week:
Podcast #12: 9 questions with @Schneidermike on Location-Based Services: Foodspotting, Foursquare, check.in, Facebook & privacy
Are there other posts you have read about the location-based industry the past week? Let me know in the comments.
