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Location-specific advice supplied by the crowd

Both Aardvark (now owned by Google) and the more recently debuted Quora are a testament to the fact that some questions are still better answered by human beings rather than by search engines. Bringing that concept to bear on the location-based arena isCrowdbeacon, a website and mobile app that lets users get location-specific advice in real time from local, human users.

The brainchild of New York-based Squeaky Wheel Media, Crowdbeacon is “a location-based service focused on providing relevant, localized communication and information to users based on what they need and where they are,” in the company's own words. Users begin by downloading the free iPhone app from Apple's App Store. If they don't have an iPhone, they can use the website instead. Then, as they go about their daily lives, they can tap fellow users for whatever local information they need, whether it's where to find the best burrito in town or which bar has the best happy hour.

When users sign up with Crowdbeacon, they choose one category that they are willing to answer questions about in their hometown — nightlife, for example. Then, when a related question arises from another user, Crowdbeacon's notification system alerts those who signed up for that area to see if they can help. Not just individuals but also local businesses can participate — in the latter case, they can also select keywords they'd like to be notified about. A flower shop, for instance, might choose “roses,” “peonies” and “free delivery”. Either way, notifications are currently delivered via email, push, sms and voice. And since there's no guarantee that the human responses will answer the question adequately, Crowdbeacon integrates the top results from Yelp, Foursquare and Wishpond as well. Users who respond often and well are rewarded via a location-specific ranking system; businesses, needless to say, get potential leads.

There's no doubt location-based apps are here to stay, but the incorporation of subjective advice in a geolocated way is intriguing. Who will help Crowdbeacon expand to other mobile platforms — and other parts of the world? (Related: Location-based service helps hotel guests connect offline — Location-based messaging for neighbourhoods — App delivers location-based info from drivers to drivers.)

Website: www.crowdbeacon.com
Contact: info@crowdbeacon.com

Spotted by: Rachel Patterson

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Location based disaster app ~ City Guard

Natural disasters and other emergency situations are very much a local phenomenon, yet little has been done so far to take advantage of the mobile world's new location-based capabilities. Enter CiviGuard, a new mobile app service designed to help governments deliver timely and contextual emergency information to affected civilians.

To make use of CiviGuard, federal, state and local command centers would begin by leveraging the technology to identify crisis zones when a disaster occurs. California-based CiviGuard then determines which cell phone towers represent those crisis zones and compiles a list of subscribers to its FIPS 140-2-compliant service who should be targeted with an emergency message. Those subscribers then receive notifications via SMS, push or email, alerting them to critical information including route plans, directions and other emergency warnings. The multitouch CiviGuard app currently supports iPhone, iPad and Android; coming soon are BlackBerry and Windows Phone. Pricing for government organizations is on a per-civilian, per-year subscription basis, and it includes deployment, command training, mobile device updates, 24x7 support and quarterly readiness testing.

Emergency management agencies around the globe: one to try out on your own smartphone-savvy population? Alternatively, developers: how about delivering a scaled-down, functionall version for less developed parts of the world? (Related: Emails warn patients about health-changing weather — Car insurer alerts clients by text message when roads get icy.)

Website: www.civiguard.com
Contact: info@civiguard.com

Mobile Meets Loyalty >> Data Pro + Alon

Mobile Meets Loyalty

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As consumers purchase more and more smartphones and phone technology heads in the direction of the “super,” it’s only a matter of time before old-fashioned loyalty, rewards and club card programs head in the mobile direction. Two applications — Key Ring and CardStar(

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) give us a preview of what’s to come.

Both applications are designed to eliminate plastic loyalty card buildup with a single digital repository. The apps leverage barcode scanning technology so users can save gym cards, grocery store cards, drug store cards and the like, right to their phone.

This trend is just beginning to take shape as smartphones become more commonplace, scanners become more sophisticated and retailers become digitally savvy. In the future, we can expect integration with merchant loyalty programs, as well as integration with checkin services like Foursquare(

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). The latter also demonstrates the inevitable convergence of social media with traditional loyalty programs, which we’re already seeing from Tasti-d-Lite’s innovative approach to automatic, POS-integrated social media rewards system.

Shopkick’s retailer-friendly automatic checkin service is currently being tested by Best Buy, Macy’s, Sports Authority and Simon Property Group. This early interest in Shopkick points to retailer interest in verifiable, checkin-driven rewards. There’s also private beta mobile app Pushpins, which seeks to leverage QR codes to further enmesh the in-store shopping experience with digital retailer rewards, the likes of which resemble the sophistication of SCVNGR’s recently released rewards program.

Geofence Your Friends With Footprint Feed

via ReadWriteWeb by Adrianne Jeffries on 9/16/10

footprint-logo.jpgWe usually talk about geofencing for advertisers, where a customer's proximity to a business can trigger a text message or push notification. But geofencing for individual users is just fun - if not more.

Footprint Feed is a mobile app that lets you set up feeds to share your location with people you know through Facebook, Twitter, RSS or specific people via text message or email. "Death to the check in," said Director Rob Cleghorn. "Set-up some feeds and forget about it."

Sponsor

footprint1.jpgFootprint Feed works with Google Latitude, which runs in the background on your phone to constantly monitor your location. Instruct Footprint Feed where you want to "check in" ahead of time, and who you want to know about it. You can have a text message sent to your parents when you land safely at the airport, or tweet when you visit a new city, or update Facebook that you're at the library (or the bar). You can also "check out" the same way you check in, so your friends know you've left the party as Latitude detects that you've moved on.

"We've tried to keep it as open as possible, from a bus that you can follow on Twitter to see which stop it's at to that text message you always forget to send your mum to let her know you got home okay," Cleghorn said. "We're all about setting up some feeds, running Latitude on your phone and keeping everyone you choose updated with your movements, automatically."

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It's refreshing to see a geofencing app that isn't about advertising (see our recent post, For Advertisers, Location-Based Services "Blew Up Overnight"). Footprint Feed isn't even ad-supported - it's a freemium model that offers most features for free, but for $4.70 a month you get unlimited email notifications and 50 text messages a month.

Footprint Feed was developed by Cleghorn's Footprint Labs, a small location-based services startup in London that created the Facebook app Footprint History, a sort of precurser to Facebook Places complete with an application programming interface or API. Footprint History was retired after Facebook restricted access to profiles by third-party apps.

Footprint Labs just announced SMS support, and is working on support for Facebook Places, Google Buzz and LinkedIn.

A useful app, or would you rather your geofencing came with coupons? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Discuss

CitySourced makes it easy to report danger from the web or your mobile device

via Download Squad by Jay Hathaway on 8/16/10

Filed under: , ,

CitySourced is a convenient app that lets you photograph and report issues like potholes, downed trees and broken signs and lights to your city government. It's an idea whose time has come -- phoning in a report or figuring out who to email is a hassle, and the person who receives your call or email probably has to type it into a database.

CitySourced skips that step and lets you send a convenient report with photos, map and description of the problem. It makes the city's job as easy as possible, and I'd be willing to bet it raises your chances of getting your problem fixed.

You can get CitySourced on your iPhone, BlackBerry or Android device, or just file and read reports via the website. Sign-in is a breeze, and doesn't even require creating an account if you connect with Facebook. CitySourced was a finalist in last year's TechCrunch50 startup contest, and I wrote that it would have gotten my vote if I had been judging.

As for whether it works well in practice, I just filed a CitySourced report here in Seattle and I'll be sure to update this post if the report turns out to be effective. Have you filed a report on CitySourced? Did it get results?

[via Lifehacker]

CitySourced makes it easy to report danger from the web or your mobile device originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MASS MINGLING apps for getting toghether

Published on : http://springwise.com/weekly/2010-06-30.htm#massmingling  10X Yuavl Susskind

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Long gone are the days when "online" was synonymous with social isolation. In fact, we're now witnessing the opposite: technology is driving people to connect and meet up with others in the "real world". This mass mingling makes for an interesting trend, begging to be turned into new services for consumers. Here are five such services:

1. MEETUP EVERYWHERE — Meetup's new service, Meetup Everywhere, is an open and free platform that helps people build communities based on a common interest. Organisers can map offline gatherings and share announcements and updates through Facebook and Twitter accounts. One recent initiative: ReadyMade magazine partnering with Etsy.com to encourage DIY crafters to host local "craft-ups".

2. GATSBY — Gatsby is a mobile app that introduces people according to shared interests and locations, using Foursquare. Users tell Gatsby their Foursquare account details and describe their interests. Gatsby then searches for like-minded people locally and texts them with first names and what they have in common.

3. LOOPT MIX — Loopt Mix is a free iPhone app for finding and chatting to other users nearby. Users identify shared interests by means of tags and preferences on their personal profiles. There's also a set of search filters for ad hoc link-ups. Favoured contacts can be flagged to provide users with quick access to their core social circle.

4. STREETSPARK — Another iPhone app using location to get people in touch, StreetSpark has a specifically romantic intent. Users describe themselves and the kind of person they hope to meet. The app then informs them when a possible match is nearby. No contact information is divulged automatically; people can chat and choose whether or not to identify themselves.

5. LOVESTRUCK — Also in the match-making business, UK-based Lovestruck is aimed at single professionals. The website and mobile apps use work locations as a base to link potential lovers. Customers can display their availability through status updates, and iPhone owners can also see if other users are in their current vicinity when they're on the move.

For more examples of MASS MINGLING, read this month's trend briefing by trendwatching.com >>

TechCrunch: Waze Taps Into Geo Tweets. Facebook, Foursquare, iOS 4 Come Along For The Ride

 Waze Taps Into Geo Tweets. Facebook, Foursquare, iOS 4 Come Along For The Ride by MG Siegler on Jun 30, 2010

When it comes to mapping applications, Waze is probably the most fun one out there. It turns turn-by-turn navigation into a social experience, and a game (think: Pac-Man). It also happens to be free. And a few new features rolling out in the updated iPhone app today make it even more interesting.

The biggest new feature is the use of geolocated tweets for realtime traffic updates. One of Waze’s core features is the ability to send and get realtime traffic info as you use it in your car on the road. But that obviously requires that people use Waze to send those reports. But with Twitter integration, Waze can scan tweets sent from anywhere to find information about things like bad traffic or accidents on the road.

This is done “in a smart way — we’re only bringing in tweets relevant to traffic road conditions,” Waze’s Di-Ann Eisnor tells us. Waze is actually using a mixture of geotagged tweets and ones from relevant sources (such as the Department of Transportation) and running them through an algorithm to make sure they only show relevant ones in the app.

Twitter users can also ensure Waze will get their reports as quickly as possible by including the hashtag “#wazelive” in their tweets. And you’ll be able to see geotagged tweets on the map itself.

Another big addition to Waze is Facebook and Foursquare integration. With this new Facebook integration, you’ll be able to see your Facebook friends within Waze as they move around the map. These friends have different icons from regular Waze users to distinguish them.

With the Foursquare integration, Waze users can check-in to various places from within the app. Doing so in the correct way will unlock a “Road Warrior” badge.

But what may be the most important new feature in the iPhone app is the new iOS 4 functionality – including background location. This means that you can now use Waze even when you don’t have the app open (something which was previously possible on the Android version).

You can find the newest version of Waze in the App Store here (the new app was just approved so it may take a little bit of time to show up). It’s a free download.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/30/waze-twitter-facebook-foursquare/