

Wait... People don't love location based apps? - akitchell
http://blog.urbantag.com/post/5249446002/wait-people-dont-love-location-based-services
a teaser of whats to come from @urbantag
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jordank
Most people don't have ongoing location discovery needs that would cause them
to consistently engage with location based apps and services. People find the
things that are compelling to them and then they tend to move on. People who
live in cities, often the prime target for LBS, are often well aware of lots
of great things to do around them.

Prime candidates for ongoing engagement with LBS are: people who travel a lot,
people who are hungry for new and interesting stuff but don't know where it is
, and people who are new to city (even here engagement will be limited).

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PaulHoule
I was just involved in a conversation about location-based advertising and
maps, which kind of revolved around the issue that an interest in (or presence
at) a location isn't necessarily tied to purchase intent (or other behaviors.)

For instance, hotels are famous for spending big $ for pay-per-click
advertising. On the other hand, the fact that I'm looking at a map of an area
or even if I'm roaming around in an area doesn't mean I'm necessarily
interested in booking a hotel (perhaps I already did or I'm staying with a
friend.)

If you think about a really busy urban area, there are thousands of things
that I ==might== take an interest in within a half-mile radius. Winnowing all
through that is a meaningful way is a difficult problem, and it might all be
for naught if there's something ==really== cool that's 2 mile away and that's
outside the radius the system is scanning.

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surfingdino
The glass is half-full ;-) but here's the thing, location is just a feature
that enabled more interesting apps. Building your app/business around location
alone is not enough to keep people using your app.

~~~
auxbuss
Good call. Mirrors my behaviour, after thinking about it.

It's early days with location awareness. We're still at the, "Ooh shiny"
stage.

Location awareness _is_ something to build on. But not the fact that I'm 823m
from something, somewhere. To be useful, there needs to be much to it than
that.

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joshklein
I've been wanting some way to figure out what things people LIKE ME are doing
that are trending right now. If there were people checking into bars all
around NYC tonight with tags like "crowded" or "the hipsters are out" or
"popped collars" or "quiet" or "divey vibe", I would be paying a lot more
attention.

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nametoremember
I want to be able to find the best deals near me for lunch or activity but I
do not want to constantly use location based services.

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neworbit
They're still too inconvenient and specialized. Waiting for GPS signal = fail.

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joshu
Tagging?

