Where location services are going, beyond Foursquare

There has been a lot of talk about Foursquare lately, the popular site that allows people to notify select friends where they are with the GPS feature on their wireless device.    So if I decide to go downtown in Seattle to the wine bar Purple, I can “check in” to that location when I arrive there and send signals to friends that might be nearby.  It’s a pretty handy and as more of us get used to the ubiquity of GPS, especially as GPS can now be specific about a specific location in a mall, even specific to a floor (a la what Point Inside offers).

The challenge with Foursquare is that you have to remember to “check in” your location and depending on circumstances, that can be a hassle, and for the forgetful ones in the crowd, well . . .

Here’s what I think is going to happen.

If we start with the outcome of what people (not everyone, I realize) is going to want, it’s broadcasting to specific groups of friends where you will be, and when.

I actually think the longer term solution will involve less GPS, not more.

Most people already maintain online calendars, and for many of us, the location is already a part of what we include in the block of time.  If we simply specify which friends we want to know about it, it becomes pretty easy for the e-mail server to push the notifications to the friends, or for friends to poll who is nearby when they are looking for other people.  If someone is supposed to be in an area, the friend can text the other friend and ask them to activate their GPS so they can track them down (since most devices don’t broadcast persistently).

The other reason I think this makes sense, is that most of us are several people in one. There’s the work “me”, the Dad “me”, the workout “me” and then the social “me” – and it wouldn’t be too hard for me to select different groups of people to notify during the day, at night, on the weekend, based on which “me” I am – and having the mail service manage that and push it out to contacts makes sense to me.

I could see Facebook, or Hotmail, or Outlook being in a good position to do this, and I think this is the easiest “how” to achieve the “what” of notifying people where we are.  I do think a player like Point Inside is going to be pivotal for this to play itself out.

-Ric