Where am I ?
From 2005 thru end of last year I saw many early stage startups all trying to bring location based services (LBS) to the web or mobile in new interesting ways.
All of them had the core belief that location data is going to be important. We all agreed but it was just too early for most of them unfortunately.
These days I’m seeing more and more locations based ideas, prototypes and full blown applications. But this time I think the timing is just right to put this in users hands.
iPhone3G is going to be the catalyst for LBS. It’s going to start out very simple. Imagine no longer having to enter where you are in yelp or other local sites (weather, news, movies, etc). This field is going to be an endangered species at some point in the near future:
But that’s only the start. I want to know where my friends are in real time. I want to know about groups. I want to get in on games, hikes etc. I want to Dopplr to know where I am. I want last.fm to know where I am. I want you to see all of the cool & interesting people that make it to OpenCoffee Cambridge. The list goes on and on.
My GPS is about to get a whole lot smarter about location by going 2 way instead of 1 way. I really hope someone builds a location based service for Bug soon.
Location based services are coming. And I’m thrilled about the possibilities.
