unlocking the adventurer badge & more on location based services

i'm a huge fan of location based applications, especially foursquare. the friend-locating, point-earning, city-based app was actually created by an acquaintance in nyc and it's taken the twitter world by storm. essentially, users "check in" to restaurants, retail locations, virtually anywhere to earn points. having checked into one location the most times earns you the title of "mayor" and major bragging rights.

while i use it for fun (and i'm desperately trying to become the mayor at one of the area's sephoras!), a company could quickly track my trends based on the various locations that i check into during a given week. they could then create a model or a "mobile profile" of me to predict where i might go on a particular day of the week or time of day. that has huge implications for companies interested in tapping into mobile advertising since they would know the type of consumer i am and where i frequent.

the future of location based services is also fascinating. (it's something i happen to be researching and presenting in my itec617 class this semester.) mashing it up with something like virtual reality could potentially give incredible competitive advantage to travel companies like lonely planet. location based services are also evolving to be functional inside, in major shopping malls, museums, etc. imagine being able to navigate the louvre 100% on your own for a fully customized tour?

some people raise concerns about who is watching users of lbs and how they could potentially obtain personal information. i'm personally really enjoying where location based services are at the moment and where they're going.