LBS Tidbits
MobileBeat (a conference/competition from VentureBeat) hosts 20 companies to “battle it out” for Tesla Awards (and more importantly, buzz). Among the location-focused of the finalists, which are picked not for “cool” but for market potential:
POIdo
A pay-per-action location-based advertising platform providing ads targeted to mobile and Web users’ precise location, context, and behavior.
Micello
Aims to power the emerging hyperlocal, indoor location-based services ecosystem.
Locomatix
Locomatix enables brands to build their own location-based apps, create new services for existing local content aggregators, or deliver new capabilities to merchants through platforms like Facebook.
Mytalk
A mobile tool available on any Internet-enabled device that allows you to connect with other people based on location and similar interests, and with businesses based on location and need.
AppCitylife
One part Yellow Pages, one part Fodor’s, and one part 311 — with local promotions and content. Actionable logos within city guides, mini-apps within multiple guides for major events or companies, and dirt-cheap promotions are just a few of the ways AppCitylife serves local and national clients.
Motolingo
A mobile-apps provider that connects your fuel tank and other car data with the cloud for smarter service and travel. It connects your car’s computer to mobile phones to find out whether you’ll make it to your destination and get fair-priced service.
- VentureBeat (note to VB: Why no links to the finalists’ websites?)
A white hat coder (“good guy”) found a hole in Foursquare’s implementation that allowed him to identify checkin’s via a venue’s “who’s been here” section. Foursquare says it’s been fixed.
Directory network Local.com has acquired Octane360, a domain-based local ad firm that aims its services at small businesses, domain portfolio owners, agencies and publishers. The terms of the deal call for Irvine, CA.-based Local.com to pay Octane360 $5 million in cash and stock with an earnout of up to $5.9 million. The earnout is tied to unspecified performance benchmarks within a two-year period following the closing.
In other Foursquare news, it’s time for version 1.9 for iOS4. It has maps, but no background processing - yet.
The new map view allows you to see avatar representations of your Foursquare friends overlaid on a Google Map. You can also hit the locator button to show off where you are and see which friends are actually closest to you. Clicking on their images brings a pop-up that shows their current location (which you can click on to go to that location’s page in the app).
ReadWriteWeb provides an overview (buggy but cool, in short) of yet another check-in aggregator, FootFeed.
