Written by Leila Ergos – Geolocation is here to stay. It has been adopted by the major players in the industry and is carving an independent position in the social media market. With products such as foursquare, mytown and gowalla leading the race, we’re sure to see a lot more competition in the space. So far facebook is the only one of the big social networks that is taking geolocation seriously by launching places, a service within facebook that allows people to check in to physical locations and to browse who’s around. This is just the beginning of the geo-location fight that is sure to heat up in the upcoming months.
In the meantime, here are seven reasons why geolocation is here to stay.
- Geolocation has become a fashion and cultural trend beyond early adopters.
- Companies have the opportunity to advertise their products and services directly and selectively.
- Social networks are rushing to adapt its functionality to also provide geolocation services, though some half-heartedly
- More and more people have GPS-enabled devices.
- The smartphone market is only getting bigger around the world.
- People’s social circle is becoming wider and larger.
- Social networks are increasingly oriented towards mobile devices.
Let’s start by defining geo-location. Geo-location is the practice of associating a digital resource with a physical location. Digital resources can be photos, videos, texts. Location information is calculated according to latitude and longitude coordinates to mark a specific location anywhere in the world. Geo-location networks and services are fast becoming a necessary tool for all smartphone users, who can not only find the location of a friend, but also physical locations such as pharmacies in their neighbourhood, parks, libraries.
So many services to choose from. Here’s a comparison of the most popular geolocation enabled services:
Why does geolocation work? Let’s take foursquare. Foursquare is one of the most popular geo-location service so far. Its secret is to combine social networking with geo-location and a competitive game with a good way to advertise effectively. Foursquare’s key to success is that it converts users’ activities in a game. Every time that someone visits a store they get closer to becoming the mayor of that location which in turn can bring them preferential treatment at the location.