Category Archives:
mobile location

Google patents, AdMob and geo-targeted mobile advertising

google-admob Damned interesting press release came in from AdMob today. Probably the biggest mobile advertising network in the world, AdMob is the king of display and banner ads when it comes to mobile devices. And today it has announced a test run of geo-targeted advertising with a location-aware dating site in the UK called Lovestruck.com – and I’m sure I’m not the only person that this immediately reminded of Google’s recently awarded patent for the use of location in mobile advertising. Continue reading

Mobile Brits snogging potential UK Prime Ministers

Rating: They’re all over 18 so it’s legal

The wonderfully named mobile dating site, Flirtomatic, has been capitalising on the forthcoming UK general election by putting up fake profiles of the three main candidates. Members are then invited to ‘snog’ a potential Prime Minister to win prizes. Continue reading

Hyperlocal on mobile is more hyped than hyper, says Yahoo!

mobile locationThe idea of “hyper-local” mobile services has been gaining a lot of popularity recently – but just what does that mean? At the Location Business Summit this week in Amsterdam, Gary Gale, Director of Engineering, Yahoo! Geo Technologies gave a refreshingly amusing presentation that asked whether it was more “hyped” than “hyper”. Continue reading

Google doesn’t wow on mobile location advertising… yet

googleWhat has Google been doing? At the Location Business Summit in Amsterdam today, we got a brief update on what Google has been working on in location-based advertising. And it’s not quite as exciting as I had hoped. Continue reading

TomTom says crowd-sourced maps are better for mobile LBS

picture-31The phrase “crowd-sourced” often causes brows to wrinkle when it comes to mobile or on-line services. But Rik Temmink, VP of global product management for GPS navigation experts TomTom says that crowd-sourcing when it comes to digital maps doesn’t lead to subjectivity and low standards. In fact, he claims, it can lead to much more accurate results. Continue reading

What do mobile operators think about LBS?

mobile-operatorsWe’ve just finished a great panel here at the Location Business Summit, on the network operator perspective on mobile services and location data. T-Mobile, Orange and KPN gave us insights into how they view the future of location services run by and through the mobile network operators. Continue reading

Mobile location is the business in Amsterdam

I’m here at the Location Business Summit in Amsterdam – not even volcanic ash could stop this conference from going ahead. As location-based mobile services move further and faster in the public domain, there are still a lot of questions surrounding them. Questions about privacy, monetisation, advertising and hyper-location. Well, representatives from the most important mobile location companies from the world are here today to discuss these matters – and we’ll be reporting on the meat of what happens. Keep an eye out over the rest of the week for our LBS reports from the heart of the Location Business Summit. Continue reading

Can hybrid location technologies deliver mass market solutions?

picture-24In preparation for The Location Business Summit 2010, which kicks off tomorrow in Amsterdam, we present you with the second of two articles from TheWhereBusiness, the navigation, location and tracking experts. Here we have an in-depth interview with Polymath Insight’s founder Ian Sheret. Continue reading

Understanding the challenges associated with ‘passive’ and `active’ location services

picture-24In preparation for The Location Business Summit 2010, which kicks off tomorrow in Amsterdam, we present you with the first of two articles from TheWhereBusiness, the navigation, location and tracking experts. Here we have an in-depth interview with Vodafone Group Services Limited’s Stephen Deadman on privacy challenges. Continue reading

Bad news for Google, as Skyhook attracts Motorola mobile LBS

skyhook wirelessThat’s two days in a row now we’ve had people switching services from Google. First was PayPal, now this. Motorola has announced it is dropping Google as the provider of its location-based services, and is going with Boston-based Skyhook Wireless instead. Continue reading

Unusual location aware app from Lufthansa

Rating: MemberScout is more social networking than flight times

A rather unusual variation on the travel information theme has just been launched by Lufthansa – an iPhone and Blackberry app called MemberScout. It combines location awareness with social networking to support the airline’s frequent fliers. Continue reading

Papture claims first in iPhone in-app billing

Rating: Only games taken advantage of new ITunes feature

A company which specialises in supplying celebrity gossip to the masses, Papture, claims it will be amongst the first to take advantage of a new feature Apple is offering called ‘in-app billing’. Continue reading

Another well-kept secret – Samsung Smart Life

Rating: There’s something about a Layar Reality browser, too

It’s one of those important announcements from Samsung which if you’d blinked, you’d have missed. Buried away in the launch of its Galaxy S Android handset at the recent CTIA show was a new facility called Smart Life or ‘S life’ for short. It has something to do with content and UIs. Continue reading