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In another move that shows how the browser is the definitive killer app on mobile devices, location-based services company TeleNav is using HTML5 to give developers the ability to implement GPS turn-by-turn directions into Web apps. The service will be completely browser-based and free. No native app platforms needed at add GPS to the browser.

In its first outside investment, Meridian has closed a $1 million round of funding led by the Oregon Angel Fund and Bellingham Angels Group. The Portland-based location service offers a standalone app for navigating the interiors of partner locations - like bookstores, museums and sports stadiums - using GPS data, Wi-Fi positioning, and other location signals to provide turn-by-turn directions inside a 3D map of the building.

Meridian's platform also allows third parties to build their own branded applications on the technology, and this is the potential that spurred the new investment. Drew Bernard of the Oregon Angel Fund says that Meridian's ability to provide a range of business verticals with a ready-to-go mobile navigation platform will be a major time and cost saver for businesses who want to develop their own applications.

Urban Airship made big news in the startup community yesterday with its acquisition of backend location services provider SimpleGeo. Last December we called SimpleGeo the most promising company of 2011 because of the way it provides location data for applications and the approach the company uses to tackle the problem. Urban Airship agrees that SimpleGeo has great potential, hence the acquisition.What does this mean for the backend-as-a-service mobile cloud realm?

Groupon drives disloyalty, says Geoff Lewis, CEO of TopGuest. "Deep discounting is not a sustainable customer retention strategy for the long term," he explains. With his company's new program TopGuest Apex, the goal is to do the opposite of Groupon: instead driving large groups of new customers to a merchant, create personalized loyalty programs that reward customers for repeat visits to their favorite merchants.

Until now, TopGuest's business model involved awarding points (e.g. hotel points and other travel rewards) for checking in at one of the company's 15,000 partner places, mainly hotels and airports. But TopGuest Apex will reward users with points for checking in to their favorite local businesses.

Hilton HHonors points for going to the gym and Starbucks? Exactly.

Singapore-based developer Ridzuan Ashim spotted NFC support for tag reading in the Android application for Google Plus, the new social networking service launched into private beta only days ago. NFC, short for near field communication, is a wireless technology that enables data exchanges over short distances. The technology is currently present in a small subset of phones, including some Nokia devices, Google's own Samsung-built Nexus S, variants of the Samsung Galaxy S II and others.

But what is NFC doing in the Google Plus app?

EggDrop is a new mobile application for buying and selling goods in real-time with those in your local community. The idea is to improve upon the mobile commerce experience by using the technology that ships on modern smartphones. The app lets you use the camera for posting photos of items for sale, filter searches by location and receive push notifications to stay informed about the items you're watching, buying or selling.

In addition, EggDrop introduces an interesting pricing model - the "falling price auction." This enables so-called "frictionless" transactions that work without any haggling, bargaining, deals or discounts. It's as if eBay has been re-imagined for the mobile, social, location-based age.

This morning, another new startup launched a mobile social networking application where location is the primary feature and friends comes second. Banjo, which shows you all the people nearby upon first launch, is one of many similar services now arriving to fill a void in the social networking space. These services are identifying the disposable, the elastic and the ephemeral social networking that occurs  - or could occur, given the right technology - when tied to a particular location at a particular point in time.

But does Banjo have the winning formula? What about the others? And will anyone really use these services?

The most important thing you need to know about Banjo, the Palo Alto-based startup launching its new mobile app today, is that it's not another social network. "Banjo is a social discovery service," explains CEO Damien Patton. "It's a layer on top." What he means is that you don't have to build a community on Banjo, you don't have to add or remove friends - in fact, you don't even have to create a profile to use it.

Instead, Banjo, when launched, shows you the people around you. It's a social network based on who's present at any given location.

According to social media software maker Wildfire, the top 10 spots for Facebook check-ins include several airports, Disneyland, Times Square NYC and, um...Facebook headquarters. That's right. Out of Facebook's nearly 700 million users around the world, the offices of Facebook are seeing enough check-ins to make the company's top 10. What does that mean for Facebook Places? Is the service not seeing the adoption Facebook would like?

A Microsoft employee was spotted testing what appears to be a new check-in service on Windows Phone, according to his Twitter updates from an app called "Windows Phone(viaWindowsLive)INT." The app's name, when clicked in Twitter, simply redirects you to the main Windows Phone 7 website. It's also mapped to a test version of the Windows Live Messenger service, according to AllFacebook's Facebook app tracking service. The "INT" likely means "internal."

This news is notable not only for the checkin component, but also because, currently, Microsoft does not have a Windows Live Messenger client for its Windows Phone mobile operating system. It only has an official app for iPhone, and officially sanctioned thapps for Windows Phone and Android.