Advanced Search Location Services Most Wanted Mobile Feature

onlinemediadaily reporting:
A new study from TNS identifies location-based services (LBS) as the function mobile users worldwide are most interested in using on their devices. As part of its annual Mobile Life study, the media research firm found almost a fifth (19%) of the world’s 6 billion mobile users are already using LBS, with many of the non-users (62%) aspiring to do so in the future.
Being able to navigate via maps and GPS on mobile devices is the main reason people want location services. But the study indicated growing interest in more diverse activities, including being able to check-in to places through platforms like Foursquare of Facebook Places. Some 13% of mobile users take advantage of such offerings, up 50% from 2011.
In that vein, one in eight shared their location in exchange for a deal or special offer. Among non-LBS users who already get some type of mobile voucher, or would like to, a third were very receptive to the prospect of receiving deals when near a store they like. One in five mobile users (21%) said they found mobile advertising interesting if it is offering them a deal near their current location.
Among more common LBS activities, more than a quarter (26%) are using LBS to find restaurants and entertainment venues, 22% to find friends nearby, 19% to check public transportation schedules and 8% to book a taxi.
A Pew Research Center study released last September found 28% of American adults use mobile and social-location based services. It found 28% of cell owners use their phones to get directions but only 5% used check-in services like Foursquare. That proportion increased to 12% when looking just at smartphone users.
The TNS study estimated smartphone penetration in North America at 46%, well above the global average of 30%. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) was on par with North America, at 46%, followed by developed Asia (42%), China (39%), Latin America (32%) Europe (31%), emerging Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (both 21%), and emerging Asia (21%).

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/173168/location-services-most-wanted-mobile-feature.html?edition=46088#ixzz1t3vQkLGc

Google "News Near You" Goes Mobile: Trouble for Local News?

 Google announced today that its "News Near You" product, tied into Google News, will be available from Android and iPhones browsers. The beauty of this for Google is that it costs them essentially nothing to roll out this service whereas Patch and other local initiatives like Washington, D.C.-centric TBD.com spent considerable sums to break into the hyperlocal market. Can Google come in and wipe them aside in one fell swoop?
As yet, no one large company has been able to gain a significant foothold in the market. The Washington Post tried with a failed initiative in Loudoun County, Va., the New York Times has a couple ongoing efforts with "The Local" and there are small startups across the country looking to cash in.
It comes down to a matter of consumer habit and preference. News sites that tend to do well in local markets are ones that are ingrained in the community and become as much a forum for what is happening locally as a news source. Listserv lists still fulfill this purpose as do local blogs. At the same time, Google has a great approach to hyperlocal - Google News is a widely used product, the appetite for local news via smartphone is growing and Google simply flicks a switch or two on its algorithm and entire segments of the population are served. Mobile "News Near You" may seem like a small update to an existing product, but its consequences could have a more profound impact than many people think.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_news_near_you_goes_mobile_trouble_for_hyper.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29

Every media company should be afraid of Flipboard

Poynter reporting:  Flipboard epitomizes the best and the worst of the internet. The best is for the user. The worst is for the content providers that feed its stunning expansion without getting a dime in return. According to Kara Swisher ‘s AllThingsD, nine months after launching its first version, Flipboard’s new $50m financing round gives the company a €200m valuation.

Many newspapers or magazines carrying hundreds of journalists can’t get a €200m valuation today. Last year, for the Groupe Le Monde, an investment bank memo set a valuation of approximately $100m (net of its $86m debt at the time, to be precise). That was for a 644 journalists multimedia company – OK, one that had been badly managed for years. Still, Flipboard is a 32-people startup with a single product and no revenue yet.
So, what’s the fuss about?
The answer is a simple one: Flipboard is THE product any big media company or, better, any group of media companies should have invented. It’s an iPad application (soon to be supplemented by an iPhone version), it allows readers to aggregate any sources they want: social medias such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr or any combination of RSS feeds. No need to remember the feed’s often-complicated URL, Flipboard searches it for you and puts the result in a neat eBook-like layout. A striking example: the Google Reader it connects you to suddenly morphs from its Icelandic look into a cozy and elegant set of pages that you actually flip. Flipboard most visible feature is an interface that transform...  (Google reader list to layouted pages)

 

 http://www.mondaynote.com/2011/04/17/flipboard-threat-and-opportunity