You may have seen the other day that GPS navigation system Waze hit 10m users. It’s a social tool that aggregates user reports on traffic, accidents and the like. I’m a recent convert and signed up a few months ago, since then it’s become a part of my daily commute. If any of you have experienced the vagaries of rush hour traffic on the A3 you’ll understand that drivers need all the help they can get.

Waze: Useful and free, what's not to like?

As a consumer my prerequisites for downloading a geolocation app have to fulfil at least 3 of the following. Here’s how Waze hits those targets:

• Collaborative – Waze uses thousands of users’ traffic reports to create a map of road congestion and allows them to send messages in real time to update each other. Its success rests on the community spirit of its users
• Timely – this all happens in real time, a boon for an audience where seconds count
• Useful – I’ve avoided innumerable traffic jams with this tool and anything that can make the daily commute less painful and for free gets my thumbs up
• Fully integrates with my existing social profiles without superseding them – this is not a Foursquare, inundating friends with useless and annoying updates. It fulfils a purpose and doesn’t pretend to be a Facebook replacement. Should the jam be particularly bad you can send your update to Twitter or Facebook to alert your wider following, but that’s it. Waze knows its limits

Download it for your iPhone, Android or Blackberry here. My username is rupinjapan, so if you see a Transit wrapped round a traffic light on the Cobham bypass let me know ahead of time.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Earlier this week the National Policing Improvement Agency announced that it would be revising its training programmes to incorporate the use of social networking sites. They see platforms including Facebook and Twitter being key tools for gathering information and evidence on suspected criminals. Detectives will be trained in how to identify and interpret user data which, according to the spokesperson, will help ‘cover sensitive areas of policing where limited guidance existed previously.’

A few weeks ago, the Greater Manchester Police made headlines with an innovative experiment that saw all of the incidents in a 24hr period posted to Twitter under the hashtag #GMP. This latest development shows a decisive move in the policing sector to harness the many uses of social media and capitalise on our willingness to share information online.

It’s already common practice for employers to check out the profiles of potential new recruits and sites like PleaseRobMe.com have highlighted the dangers of sharing your whereabouts on Twitter and other location-based services. The NIPA’s training programme further highlights how transparent and accessible our online footprint has become. It’s so easy to comment, update your status and tweet that we often forget that this information might one day be used against us.

The privacy debate will undoubtedly continue for the foreseeable future and ultimately it’s up the individual as to how much personal information they share. In light of this week’s news though, it’s probably not a good idea to check in to the house you plan to burgle on Facebook Places!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

So Facebook Places finally comes out of the closet. At first read it looks pretty good, and when you go to the iPhone app it stands proud in the middle of your phone screen. What it has over other location services such as Foursquare and Gowalla is an existing network of friends who are more than likely to be the ones you would actually want to bump in to “by accident” in the pub.

For a more detailed look, have a read of Walt Mosberg’s column on the WSJ the video is worth a watch to.

Those other two location games have gained some traction and a lot of headlines, but the established nature of our personal Facebook communities combined with the weight of half a billion users worldwide, will guarantee use of Facebook’s service by a much larger volume of people. That means businesses will flock to it and now be trying to get their first Places campaigns running as soon as possible.

Facebook does appear to be being very embracing and actively encouraging Foursquare and others to access Places through its API. Facebook has also not gone down the game route, no mayorships or awards, allowing the more niche services to keep their focus unchallenged.

Right, so what can we do right now, if we live or visit the US? Here are a stream of tweets this morning from @sophysilver from the Facebook UK PR team, thank you!:

• If you don’t trust your friends it is simple to turn off. For most there is a lot of value in being able to share an experience with friends
• Places never automatically shares information on the location
• You must take an action to associate yourself with a place by either checking in yourself or by allowing friends to check you into a place
• It is not true that the primary location setting is switched on by default. “Places” tags will not automatically be shared with friends
• Where you have not allowed check-ins you are simply tagged in your friends status updates, just like status tagging works on the site today.
• Additional protection of being able to turn tagging off for Places, and to sett your own check-ins to any group you want including ‘only me’
• You also have the option of never checking in with the product in which case you will never be associated with a place
• Default setting for all is Friends Only. Minors can only share their location with Friends even if they try to widen it

Do follow Sophie on Twitter and for further news about the arrival of Places in the UK.

We will be keeping a close eye on this, especially should we be lucky enough to go on any trips to the US and when it finally arrives on this side of the Atlantic. Let us know what you think of the announcement, are Foursquare and Gowalla doomed?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

With Foursquare now topping two million users across the world, the location-based social network has launched its own online store, giving die hard fans the chance to buy Foursquare memorabilia. Products on offer include a mayor crown t-shirt, button badges and branded stickers.

The new store is the latest in a series of attempts by Foursquare to monetise its increasingly popular service. Recently the company started inviting brands to sponsor badges. Louis Vuitton and MTV have jumped at the chance to offer special badges and offers to users of the service.

In the case of Louis Vuitton, the designer label has partnered with Foursquare to offer users tips on their favourite locations around London. Users who follow Louis Vuitton’s profile and check into the stores around London on a regular basis, have the opportunity to earn themselves a Louis Vuitton Insider badge. The badge will offer users upcoming surprises that at present are still unknown.

Brands that partner with Foursquare have the opportunity to develop a new and engaging way to connect with their consumers. By offering tips, deals and hosting competitions, brands are able to reward their advocates and potentially pick up new customers.

If Foursquare is to grow there are still questions about how it will be funded and with Facebook rumoured to be working on new location based features designed to compete with the social network. The next few months will be critical for the company to get more brands on board and cement its position before the social media behemoth starts throwing its weight around.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Times they are a changin’, or so it seems. The powerhouse of the internet that is Google has a pretender to its crown. Facebook has managed to gain a level of momentum that could well see it take over as the most influential company on the web.

It is the strength of the relationship that Facebook has with its 450 million plus users that puts it in such a strong position. Add to that the announcements from its f8 developer conference and the writing could well be on the wall for a number of the most promising businesses currently laying claim to their own piece of our web based life.

In a way that seems contrary to the normal scheme of things, the greater Facebook’s success the more it has continued to attract new users. It is now a platform that circles the world and brings together groups of friends in a way that no other site has managed.

Adding new features and functions, such as “Presence”, could well make it the largest provider of these services at the click of a mouse. Location based services are just one possibility. Foursquare has a great proposition and has gathered a significant number of users and momentum of its own. But, and it really is a huge but for the guys at Foursquare, a Facebook location update service will automatically have millions of users an catapult it to number one in a second.

Another example of how Facebook is capturing more of our online time is its instant messenger service. With more of my friends on the site more often, I have found myself using this over more established services such as Microsoft’s Live Messenger, it is right there, quick and easy. Another significant move is Facebook connect. This service shows how Facebook is working closer and closer with other sites. The technology enables web sites to remove the need for their own registration process by giving access to services and information through a users’ Facebook login.

The really clever thing about all this is that with Facebook, registration and creation of an account is accepted absolutely by users. This automatically provides a huge, already accepting, market for any new services it bolts on. Google on the other hand, came from the opposite point of view. It was created as an open, free to all, search engine and as a result has struggled to change its proposition to a registration based model. Just look at the slow uptake of Buzz.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites