After returning from a quick weekend vacation, I posted a few of my thoughts on why Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be the one to buy Foursquare. It’s obvious to me that Facebook desperately needs Foursquare and its vast mines of location data.
How Facebook will treat that data is another question.
A few weeks ago I set out to create a new community for people and businesses interested in geolocation applications. GeoAppLab is a blog for the geolocation community.
The timing for such a community couldn’t be any better. I believe that in the next few years we’ll see entirely new ways of how businesses, consumers, organizations, and friends and family will communicate with each other based on their location and interests.
Geolocation services are where search was 12 years ago.
But geolocation may take it further. Search was about adding a taxonomy to information on the Web. Geolocation is about adding a taxonomy to real-world locations, adding that data to the Web, and integrating that information with where we are and what we’re doing at a certain space in time.
On top of that, geolocation will aggregate your interests and your friends as they exist within your online social networks, which are an extension, albeit a better organized extension, of your real-world networks.
Using these new services, businesses and non-profits will be able to better serve their patrons, recognizing their habits, their interests and their needs. It will enhance the noise-to-signal ratio.
I spend a lot of time in the trenches of geolocation. It’s obvious to me is that there is no certain path to the future. Foursquare and Gowalla are now the big players, but Twitter and Facebook are both making conservative moves to integrate location services into their existing network features. In one big swoop, I think either of these companies could dominate the market. I don’t know if there will be room for more than one or two services. Possibly three at the most.
Could Facebook or Twitter buy Gowalla or Foursquare? I think that’s very possible. But what that means to users is uncertain.
Interested in learning more? Check out GeoAppLab. You can also engage the conversation with GeoAppLab on Facebook.
Iām a fanatic for check-in services like Gowalla and Foursquare. I get really excited when I see businesses like AustināsĀ One Taco, who use check-in services to both serve customersĀ and make money. Itās the ultimate win-win, and it reaffirms that free, competitive markets are great. I love spending money on businesses that innovate and reach out to me in whatever digital space Iām in without spamming my friends and me.
Every geek I know feels the same way.
Itās hard to ignore the fact that thereās no real ācommunityā for geosocial users and business owners who want help tapping these new markets. Thereās no single āgo-toā source for help.
I hate that when I search Google for geosocial news and tutorials, I see little more than spammy blogs and fragmented articles.
Thereās no help for you if you want to get your business on the Foursquare bandwagon. Thereās no help for you if you want to become a Yelp power user, or if you want to teach your parents how to check-in for free stuff at their favorite restaurant by using the power of Gowalla.
Thatās no longer the case
Today Iām very excited to announce the launch of GeoAppLab, which strives to do all of these things and so much more. I want GeoAppLab to become a hub for geosocial users.
I want to help businesses that want to better serve their customers through check-in services and geosocial networks. I want to help businesses connect through geosocial tools.
I want to watch as the guy who got a free taco by checking in at the taco truck using Gowalla comes back again and again for paid tacos, and watch as he uses Twitter and Facebook to tell his friends how awesome this taco truck is.
Social networking, andĀ especially geosocial networking, is about customer service. The sooner businesses get onboard with this exciting technology the better they can start tapping new customers and grow in ways that they never before imagined.
The goal
GeoAppLab is a lot more than just a Web site. Itās a place where users share insight and opinions, where guest-analysts offer tutorials and advice on getting your business to leverage services like Gowalla and Foursquare to double your profit. Itās a place where you can learn how to get the most out of geosocial communities and customer networks.
Starting right now, you can visitĀ GeoAppLab for news and tutorials on how to get started in the geosocial space. SubscribeĀ on Twitter. Subscribe toĀ GeoAppLabās RSS.
Get itĀ through email.
Just get it, and follow along for the ride.
I hope to see you there.
Itās been just under a week since I began getting really excited about the iPad. The idea of having a mobile, flatscreen web browser, media player and word processor was almost too much to bear. That excitement is wearing off.
Will I get an iPad? Maybe. But if I donāt, hereās why: By some accounts the iPad is difficult to type with, especially if you try to write more than a few sentences. This is frustrating for bloggers, students, and people who deal with lots of text for a living. Ā Sure, you can hook the device up to an external keyboard, but at the cost of compromising the iPadās purpose — to fill the space between phone and laptop.
I want a device similar to the iPad thatās more than a media viewer. I want a media creator; one that has a front-facing camera and USB ports to attach external devices. I donāt want to deal with unstable wi-fi, and I want the ability to install OSX-compatible software of my choice.
The people behind Taco Journalism
, one of the best food blogs in the universe, have released an iPhone app that connects you with tacos and taco reviews no matter where in Austin you are.
If that’s not incredible enough, remember that Taco Journalism fed a bunch of geeks for free during SXSW. If that’s not a sign of Austin hospitality, I don’t know what is.
Michael Castellon 