28% Use Location Services

More than a quarter of all American adults—28 percent—use mobile or social location-based services of some kind, mostly to get directions or recommendations related to their current locations.

A much smaller number (five percent of mobile device owners) use their phones to check in to locations using geosocial services such as Foursquare or Gowalla.

About nine percent of Internet users set up social media services such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn so that their location is automatically included in their posts on those services.

Google: 44 Percent Of Searches For Last-Minute Holiday Gifts Will Be Mobile

Google now predicts, based on the past two years worth of data, that in the upcoming 2011 Christmas and holiday shopping season, “44 percent of total searches for last minute gifts and store locator terms will be from mobile devices."

That's a fairly staggering prediction. Google believes that 44 percent of all searches for the gift shopping purpose will be generated by smart phones. There are some potential implications for mobile advertisers, who will have to compete for limited screen real estate.

But the findings also are illustrative for the broader trend of mobile use for real-world shopping activities. That has implications for use of mobile coupons, location-based check-ins and offers and mobile wallet applications, even in advance of a widespread shift to use of mobile payment services.

One of the clear "big trends" now is that mobile and online applications and features increasingly are being applied to offline commerce. 

44 Percent Of Searches For Last-Minute Holiday Gifts Will Be Mobile

17% of Smart Phone Users Checking In

About 17 percent of mobile users appear to use social location-based apps such as Foursquare or Facebook Places, according to a study commissioned by digital agency Beyond.

More than half of mobile users who do use checkin apps (54 percent) said they are motivated to share their location when discounts are involved. About 21 percent said the ability to earn badges and status rewards were enough motivation for them to check in.

About 48 percent of respondents who say they do not use mobile check-in apps indicate privacy is their primary reason for not doing so.

About half of respondents were unable to do so because they do not have a smart phone.

Early adopters are more likely to check in at locations that sell food or drinks. The top places are restaurants (53 percent), coffee shops (40 percent), hotels (38 percent) and bars (36 percent).

Mass consumers check in most frequently at the homes of friends and family (35 percent) and restaurants (33 percent)

Why Mobile Users Aren't Checking In

Foursquare Wants to Move from Check-Ins To Recommendations

Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley says the future of Foursquare, the location based service is "what its users are going to do, not what they are doing."

Right now Foursquare essentially tracks the realtime movements of its more than eight million users.

In the future, Foursquare wants to make use of the loads of data it’s collected on these realtime movements (600 million check-ins) to help users plan what they should do next.

From Check-Ins To Recommendations: A Glimpse Into The Future of Foursquare

Loopt introduces location-based Q&A

Loopt, a provider of location-based services, today announced "Qs," a new feature that allows users to answer questions and see other user’s responses in any physical business location. People might want to answer questions such as "where is the best happy hour special right now?"

Most people, perhaps as few as one percent, actually create the content displayed by location-based services such as Loopt. The company hopes simple "question and answer" formats will encourage more people to contribute.

The company plans on releasing the new feature first in San Francisco and then roll out from city to city.

Loopt introduces location-based Q&A feature

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.