Unstrung on: Location Services Lost on Users

Sigh. This is not a blindspot of mine. I don’t think anyone has got this wrong. I think Location-based services are a great idea. The problem is that to make it work, you need to convince the company with the location info (the operator) what’s in it for them. I don’t think any of it was handled or pitched properly such that these services could be rolled out. It’s really no one’s fault. It just is a messed up mumbo-jumbo that has been making us drag our feet.

Do you realize that there is no reason technically for location-based services not to be deployed today?* What I’d like to see is more ground-up kinds of services that go around the current barriers, for example Plazes, Dodgeball-like (Jumpclaimer or Wayfaring), or something like what Nathan Eagle did.

Link: Unstrung – Location Services Lost on Users – Wireless Networking News Analysis.

Location based services (LBS) — which deliver localized information directly to your mobile phone in real time — have generated plenty of buzz in the wireless industry over the last couple of years, but it turns out these new cellular applications are largely lost on enterprise users.

UPDATE 10feb06: I wrote this sentence backwards and forgot to add an important word ‘not’. What I mean is that all the tech is there. There is no reason, technically, we cannot roll out these services today. Sorry for any confusion.