The Era of Location-as-Platform Has Arrived
The mobile location "check-in" is fast becoming the hot new status message type online. It was only a matter of time until "where you are" became a platform to build added value on top of just like "who you know" has on social networking sites like Facebook.
Canadian newspaper chain Metro announced today that it has launched a deal with location-based social network Foursquare that will deliver location-specific editorial content from the paper's website to users' phones when they check-in near a spot Metro has written about before. The potential for services like this is huge. It's too bad Metro appears to be taking the easy way out and focusing on delivering restaurant reviews, but it's a start.
The Incredible Potential of Location-Based News
In November we wrote a long piece about some of the kinds of things Twitter's new Geolocation API makes possible. So far we've seen very little development on top of that API, but it's widely expected that Twitter and Facebook will make location a major part of their offerings just like startups Foursquare and Gowalla have and like Yelp just began to do last week.
Just imagine.
User checks-in, via mobile phone: "I'm checking in at the coffee shop at SE 78th and Stark."
User's favorite services, which they signed-up for on their favorite location-based social network, respond...
Local newspaper: "There were 3 stories in the Metro section last week about places within 1 block of your current location, 1 story in Business and 2 stories in Sports. The first time we reported about that coffee shop was in 1985, click here to read that story."
Local events calendar: "There are 2 musical events, 1 political event and 3 religious events happening within 3 blocks of your location tonight. Click here to see those listings."
Wikipedia: "There are 3 locations within 3 blocks of you that have Wikipedia entries written about them. Would you like to read about the history of the neighborhood you're in?"
That's entirely beyond the initial use-case of location-based social networks: telling you who among your friends is or has been near your current location. There's also location-based advertising to consider, of course. I like the natural foods industry, I'd happily accept messages from organic and natural foods vendors within a few blocks of places I check-in at.
Let's See Some Serious News, Too
The prospect of the local newspaper getting on board with a location-based social network is very exciting. It appears that Metro's initial foray is going to focus on restaurant reviews. In and of itself that's not so exciting. It's hard to imagine such a service competing effectively with Yelp or Google's excellent new Near Me Now.
Put a newspaper's best and most unique strength, its journalists, into a geo-located, mobile app context and then you're really talking about something. Does the local paper want to tell mobile users that there was a murder last night, down the street from where they just checked-in? The list of unpleasant things that a newspaper is ostensibly responsible for reporting on is long - isn't it reasonable to expect newspapers to report on those through new media as well? Or will struggling papers just focus on commercially pleasant topics, like restaurant reviews?
I hope the disruptive possibilities for this kind of platform are fully explored. There's a whole lot of potential when you look at these services as platforms.
See also Using Your Mobile Phone as a Proximity Sensor, which looks at what will emerge when we add data from sensors to the platform.
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it's still in serious alpha, but my http://hotaround.me project solves a sim. problem...right now it takes your last check-in from foursquare and attempts to serve you up the latest news/events in that area from http://outside.in AND the upcoming bands/concerts around that area from http://bandsintown.com ... like I said it's still in a serious alpha hack phase (so ugly and def. information overload), but it generally works ;-)
Dude, Kevin, you build the coolest stuff. Would love to see more APIs put to use there. Wikipedia especially.
wow, and i'am so impressed by the metro badge! but truly, ...
isn't ushahidi not the ONLY LBS community that really made an impact on our compassionate web?
http://pear.ly/icTb
greetings
I've been an avid user of Foursquare for a few months. What Foursquare really needs is a "Deals Near Me" default tab that is sortable by categories. If I'm out for lunch and check into restaurant "XYZ" then I don't care if I can get $1 off at a place a few blocks away. I've already decided on a place. But if I could check on places to eat with good deals near me before I've decided on a place then that adds value. If there were reviews tied into those deals that would add even more value. Frankly, I think Yelp is going to eat Foursquares lunch since they already have so much relevant content to offer users compelling value. Foursquare just has badges.
I'm convinced there's huge potential in location based services, but can't help thinking the distraction factor might make it most useful for tourism, emergencies and people with time on their hands...
Already in progress. :-)
The APIs from Outside.in, Songkick, Bandsintown, Twitter, and others (including, of course, Foursquare) make the real issue figuring out how to identify the most useful data for a specific individual at a specific time time and place -- just getting real(-ish) time, geo-relevant data is becoming more and more of a reality.
The fun comes in figuring out how to transform that mass of *data* from various sources into *information* that's useful to you right now.
I'd also caution against limiting one's thinking on this direction to services with explicit checkins and dedicated "mobile" devices. Consider fascinating/sobering little items like CoreLocation in the latest version of OS X: if you're connected to wifi, your laptop probably has a pretty good idea of where you are already.
It seems unlikely that geo-awareness will stay limited to "mobile devices" for very long. For one of the more obvious examples, if you haven't already installed FoursquareX and give a little thought to the implications for you and your laptop.
Fortune to be made ( well, at least off of me and my fellow drunkards ) by taxi services to connecting to the foursquare API like the newspaper did.
Prompt me on my phone...
"Hey Todd, you just checked in at Rocko's Pub using Foursquare. Want to schedule one of our cabs to pick you up in [ ]1 hour [ ]2 hours [ ] No thanks"
I'd love a service like "singles that match my profile who are currently at this venue" or something…
I'm afraid that before this tool is useful for 'serious' news reporting it will have to be taken up by a newspaper other than "Metro," as its idea of news usually involved visiting California celebrities or sensationalist local news.
2010 looks to be Year of Local.
We're using geo-based Twitter internally for LocallyInformed.co.nz
If you ever talk to an old news-hound about what makes a good story, they'll say two things.
1) What effects peoples wallet
2) What are people talking about at the coffee shop.
That's it. Looks like #2 is well taken care of.
Metro is Swedish. The deal with the Canadian branch of said Swedish company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_International
http://gigaom.com/2010/01/25/location-meets-news-in-metro-foursquare-deal/
Twalky platform is positioned to capture the location as platform market by allowing anyone (from non-techies to advance API programmers) to build location-based social media applications with real-time streams of anything like places, events etc. It is like the Ning for location-based social networks.
Although people will have to wait for a few weeks till we open the platform to the public, anyone can register at http://www.twalky.com to see some of the social apps/networks that are produced by private beta users. For example, 2010 CES prize-winning Innovation Movement Network was produced by a non-tech person within a day.
In addition, anyone can download TwalkyEvents app to its iphone from the App Store and try out the GPS/Wifi/triangulation technology that location nearby events. We will see more location-based apps based on Twalky platform in the coming weeks, so it is really exciting period for us.
There is definitely a fortune to be made, i agree with Todd. This game-like technology is going to become a more powerful business tool for brands.
There is a new location-based mobile marketing, FriendTicker. They have an iphone app just for advertisers and brands that is a mobile location customer loyality platform, essentially it takes the trendy location based "check in" concept of Foursquare and Gowalla and applies it to business model for brands.
Great post, Marshall.
On the newspapers-should-be-sharing-their-unpleasant-info thing: that's a [http://www.holovaty.com/writing/fundamental-change/longstanding grail] in the industry. Seems to me that they're drawn toward cheerful information like restaurant reviews because that's the kind of information advertisers want to be associated with. I think you're right that an app about less happy stuff would be more useful to individuals in the audience than one more restaurant-review service; intuitively, that would suggest a paid app. But the people who care most about crime, for example, are people who live in poor neighborhoods. Tough market for a paid app, that.
Still, I think you make a really good point about newspapers' strategic advantage being their squads of reporters who specialize in gathering unpleasant information.
Oops. I'm thinking in MediaWiki! Here's the link.
http://www.holovaty.com/writing/fundamental-change/
Location specific programs have been around for a long time. I think mobile phones that are location aware have been a huge leap forward. It won't truly take off until a software or a platform makes the experience user friendly and a necessity for everyday use. I believe our company, Nixle, has captured Location specificity like no one else.
http://www.nixle.com
The possibilities are seriously endless. I can imagine a 4square service for movie locations. e.g. This is the bus stop where Spiderman hung upside down to kiss his girl... this is the cave where Gollum first emerged... this is the restaurant where Sally faked a climax while having dinner with Harry... this is the spot where the original tree of Eywa stood... I'm personally not so crazy for stuff like that, but I am sure there are millions of true film fans who may get a thrill from it.
Yes! I agree! An approach with audio. Imagine having an imaginary friend like a local person explain experiences, stories where you are? woices.com is a great LBS platform.
Share your voice and make the world a more interesting place...
Hi, I'm an Android developer... is there an Android based API I can use for my own applications..? An intent perhaps or remote API I can call..?