Covered this in detail on my blog

http://sachendra.wordpress.com/2008/06/06/what-i-want-from-local-search-on-my-mobile/

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
http://to.swang.googlepages.com/
http://to.swang.googlepages.com/lbs

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.
—dave

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:...