

Location Based Services Dead? - rukshn

In recent events on foursquare most people are saying that location based services like foursquare are dying and it's time to move on. Any idea on This?<p>What about a location based service that makes discovering people? Like discovercircle.com?<p>Is there a future for location based services? What's are the current trends?
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DigitalSea
Location based services like Foursquare require users to be successful. No
user base = no service. I was pretty big on Foursquare for a while but the
whole earning badges for checking in places thing became a chore more-so than
it did fun and I eventually stopped using it.

The problem with location based services is they require effort and if you
don't reward that effort or reward it half-assed then it will just get old and
eventually people will stop using it. That's what happened to Foursquare I do
believe.

As it has been pointed out, location aware is the future. Your phone does the
work for you, you don't need to open an app the app alerts you when a
predetermined action or event triggers an alert. "Alert me when a train that
stops at my desired stop is in the area between 5.30pm and 6.30pm", etc.

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lsiebert
Sure... there are two different types, in my view, of software that uses
location information. Stuff that requires knowing exactly where you are in
real time, like gps navigation software, which is location based. When you log
into 4 square and check in at a location, that's a real time transaction.

But there is also software that uses occasional location lookups, or data from
other applications that use such lookups, and it's not necessarily in real
time, and it does so in ways aren't necessarily user initated. It's data which
can be gps but also wifi or even cell phone tower based, or even from other
apps like navigation software) to do things like figure out generally where
you are, give you dining suggestions, tell you about local events etc. When
your weather app updates with the local weather, it's probably on some
schedule, but it does a gps lookup every few hours. Same thing.

When Google Now figures out where you live and where you work using an
occasional gps lookup/results from your google maps searches, etc, it's not a
real time thing, but it is using location. I believe the iphone lets you set
location based reminders. That's also location aware.

It's also rich interesting data. And since it isn't always on, it doesn't
drain your battery.

Now either google, or someone with such data, is going to build an app that
lets you opt in to sharing information about your general location, combined
with data on your interests, to do some really cool things.

Also, It's not something I know too much about, but I understand that there
are a lot of location based gay dating/hookup apps that are doing well. Better
then some straight ones, especially if you take into account the smaller
target audience.

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lsiebert
I think you are going to see less location based services, and more location
aware services. Google Now, or programs that know when a friend is nearby.

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rukshn
Can you explain more about location aware services? You mean like apple's
friends nearby, or discover circle type apps?

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turingbook
I think LBS is not an independent service type. Google Maps or other maps/Geo-
based services will be dominant.

