What's Next for Location-based Services


Many industry pundits predict that in the not-too-distant future, location will be as ubiquitous as time in the mobile consumer and enterprise market. As a key piece of data easily accessible to consumer devices, location will be consumed by everyday applications starting, many believe, with search.
The first step in this migration could well be Google’s new Google Mobile offering, which the Visiongain group predicts will soon offer location-based service (LBS)-based search, along with local advertising. In this scenario, users could easily search for local points of interest, and when they retrieve the search results they also receive targeted ads from businesses that are right on their route to the point of interest.
Other applications that could leverage LBS data include address books, instant messenger (IM) lists, photo libraries, Internet links and social networking entries, as well as localized applications such as traffic and weather helpers. In this paradigm, location is an invaluable filter for enhancing and enabling richer user experiences. For example, a mobile device could access location for its Push-to-Talk (PTT) or IM application to notify users that a “buddy” is in close proximity, allowing the mobile user to connect with friends or friends of friends in person when convenient. Another example: Bloggers could annotate their personal blogs or social networking applications with a review of a show or a restaurant, whereby like-minded subscribers to the blog would be notified on their mobile device if/when they pass by that show or restaurant.
Beyond these applications is an entirely new paradigm for the mobile experience that OpenWave, among others, calls the “mobile Web 2.0.” In this vision, a subscriber’s mobile device can be transformed into a geographically smart accessory, with location-aware business logic that can decide what contextual content the subscriber will most want to access, based on the subscriber’s location — and perhaps also on his or her preferences and schedule. By combining location data with other key pieces of subscriber and Web information, the mobile Web 2.0 will enable subscribers to interact with one another and with the mobile Web itself in an “immersive” contextual environment.