Bernhard Schindlholzer wrote that “even though I am confident that there will certainly be significant growth in some areas (i.e. vehicle tracking, in-car traffic information) I doubt that someday everyone will be using Google’s “Search nearby” feature to find the next ATM, restaurant or supermarket…the majority of people still roam in just a few locations and in general they do not move far from home. Vacations and business travel are exceptions – the percentage of time individuals spend in locations they don’t know is very small.”
Link: Do humans really need location-based services? (customer-experience-labs.com, via)
Comments 3
Hi Gabriel,
I get the reference that the person is looking at, but my personal experience and thus anecdotal is that urban folks need LBS more than non-urban. The sheer density of urban experiences has more options in smaller distances and the concept of going “blocks” could lead you into “unfamiliar” areas requiring these services.
I think this is core reason why Vindigo as an early pioneer in LBS content services was so successful here in NYC, but doesn’t translate as well to Long Island for example. I could imagine the same being true for London & Paris.
Basically, I’m always looking up the “closest” starbucks when I’m out and about.
Posted 10 Jun 2008 at 9:13 am ¶—dave
Do we need LBS so badly?
Here I can possibly present one opinion from the consumer/end-user perspective. Before I really go to the details. I may review one simple concept and one theory here, which are “Home Range Concept” and “Traffic Pattern Theory”.
Home Range Concept. It is a concept that can be traced back to a publication in 1943 by W. H. Burt, who constructed maps delineating the spatial extent or outside boundary of an animal’s movement during the course of its everyday activities.
Traffic Pattern Theory. A people’s daily activity pattern is pretty regular, which comprises of several major events, such as school, work, home, shopping.
What happened here is if you are looking at the traffic pattern of a person, saying a full-time employed, 45 years, car, 3-person-household, one child, the regular activity route is so LIMITED. So, does this mean …
also see
Posted 11 Jun 2008 at 10:04 am ¶http://to.swang.googlepages.com/
http://to.swang.googlepages.com/lbs
Yes, people go to the same places again and again, but what makes location based services important is dynamic data. I may know the local restaurant but I want to know what specials they’re offering today. I know the local movie theater but I want to know the listings for today. I know the local shopping mall but I want to know what discounts they have on right now. And it definitely helps when I’m not in a familiar area.
Covered this in detail on my blog
http://sachendra.wordpress.com/2008/06/06/what-i-want-from-local-search-on-my-mobile/
Posted 18 Jun 2008 at 4:10 am ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 2
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Humans and LBS…
In your daily life you might know where things are and don’t need to search for them – but I see many other little problems to be solved and needs to be fulfilled:...
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