LBS systems

An interesting article - Why Hasn’t Location Reached the Mainstream Yet?

"Because of privacy concerns, it is imperative for location-based services to clearly communicate the value proposition to users. Without a clear picture of what they’re getting in return, users may be hesitant to share location data." And do they (users) get a return at all? Mass location sharing (sharing location in social networks) help advertisers. It brings more precise targeting of course. But what about the users?

Than is why we think that Geo Messages approach has got more sense. In this case user just inform his/her partner on the peer to per basic "where I am". In the most cases you simply do not need to post this info into social network. In it not only the privacy issue. In the most cases is it signal vs. noise issue. Most of my circle in any social network simply do need (not interested) in my location data.

And by the way, we think that in systems like Foursquare tips information is more useful than raw check-in data.