4% Use Check-In Services

About four percent of online adults use a service such as Foursquare or Gowalla that allows them to share their location with friends and to find others who are nearby, according to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life project. On any given day, one percent of Internet users are using these services.

In a May 2010 survey, five percent of adult Internet users said they had used such a site.

Some seven percent of adults who go online with their mobile phone use a location-based service, the report suggests. About eight percent of online adults ages 18 to 29 use location-based services, significantly more than online adults in any other age group.

Google Maps On Android: Key Location Based Service

"The combination and integration of Google Maps, Places Pages, Street View and Navigation (with the phone and contacts) has created a kind of LBS juggernaut on the Android device that will increasingly prove challenging to compete with," says Greg Sterling, a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land.

Right now, no such combination of services exists on the iPhone, which makes it a more “open” playing field for location-based services and local publishers, he argues.

"I use the Google services on my Evo almost exclusively now to find local information and directions," says Sterling. "And yesterday Google updated Maps for Android to make Place Pages on the device look and operate more like Places on the PC."

I'd have to agree that the navigation and mapping features of the Evo are the top reason the Evo has value, though I would rank "voice search" number two.

Google Maps On Android Becoming An LBS Juggernaut

Facebook a New 800-Pound Gorilla in Location Services?

A rational observer would have to conclude that Facebook's "Places" will have repercussions on independent providers of social location solutions.

Ditto for Skype.

Top 10 Location-Based Social Networks

That's a lot of competitors in the location-based social connections space, and an awful lot of competitors focused on friends finding each other around town.

CheckPoints will plot a different course, selling mobile access and connections with potential customers when those users are physically in stores.

If most check-in services today are aimed at younger users who most likely are single, CheckPoints is aimed at most other people who shop, including mothers who might be at Target or Wal-Mart.


Todd DiPaola, CheckPoints CEO, is pretty sure there are lots of practical things check-in services can provide, other than young people meeting each other.

Consider the $100 billion or so large consumer packaged goods companies spend to promote their brands and products using coupons and other activities. CheckPoints believes there is a major business for a “check in” app that actually can be used by major CPG brands to interact with consumers while those consumers are inside retail locations where their goods are sold.

Launching in mid-to-late September, CheckPoints will offer a campagin-based service that allows brands to connect in various ways with consumers inside retail outlets, using an application that includes a bar code reader. Swiping the reader automatically creates a check-in and then can trigger an immersive rich media session, a Facebook or Twitter connection or any other connection a CPG company can envision that includes a web address.

CheckPoints appears to be among the very-first firms to use social connections and location in a way that is directly of benefit to most large consumer products brands.

If a user goes to the grocery store, a check in occurs and CheckPoints alerts the user to participaing products in the store. Users don’t need to buy the product, and just need to scan the barcode of featured products.

Users get points or coupons that can be used to get goods ranging from airline miles to electronics.
The CheckPoints app awards points to consumers who check in at retail locations, scan product barcodes and play interactive games. Points can be redeemed in the CheckPoints Reward Store.

The system might be likened to a combinatiion loyalty program and point-of-presence marketing tool, with game or entertainment aspects.

For brands, the opportunity is to target and reach potential prospects while they are actually inside retail locations, in real time. From the CheckPoints perspective, what is attractive is that there is no need to strike deals with actual retailers, but only the brands themselves.

DiPaola says users can download the app and start using it right away, without creating more-detailed profiles. After users redeem rewards, they can share with friends to win additional points.

The company is self-financed at a level DiPaola says will allow it to reach critical mass without additional outside funding.

Google CEO Talks Up Synergy Between Mobile, Local, Social Networking

It doesn't take much insight to predict that Google will, sometime relatively soon, be making new moves in the location based services area.

Google already has made major and successful investments in mapping, local search, mobility, geo-location and navigation, for example. It also has made investments in location-based services that haven't gotten traction.

CEO Eric Schmidt recently has been talking up the synergies between mobility, local search and social networking.

“Foursquare and Gowalla are pretty impressive," says Google CEO Eric Schmidt. "They show you the power of mobile,social and local,” Schmidt said.

“Google will play in that market in a lot of ways,” Schmidt added.

http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/lbs-roundup-foursquare-improves-its-looks-google-hints-at-gowalla-acquisition-8289/

Real Estate Arguably is the Location-Based App With the Greatest Commercial Value

Mobile real estate apps, such as those available from Zillow, Redfin, ZipRealty, Century 21 and Realtor.com, have an obvious value. Home hunting is, by definition, an "out and about" experience.

So it is quite valuable to look up sale and pricing information about the house you are standing in front of, as well as sales history for other homes in the area.

In Zillow’s case, the app finds homes for sale nearby your current location, or you can look up the value of the house you are standing by.