So far, LBS might stand for Let’s Be Stalkers

Now that I’ve survived the move to San Francisco (the travel blog is here and in progress), I can seriously consider making the switch from Verizon to AT&T and picking up an iPhone 3G. I wanted to keep Verizon during the trip because I travelled through many backwoods locations and I know Verizon and its crew of stalking network testers would provide better service there.

One great iPhone feature is its ability to feed a user’s GPS coordinates into a location-based service, or LBS. This expands the usefulness of GPS beyond navigation to enhanced social networking activities. TechCrunch recently reviewed the state of major LBS applications for iPhone, and I recently attended the Web 2.0 Mapping and Social Networks Meetup, so it’s time for me to throw my two cents in the pool.

Regarding the title of this post: No, I’m not yet overly concerned with privacy issues regarding the sharing of a person’s location at this point. I just couldn’t think of any other good acronyms at the time. But privacy will a serious matter for the creators of LBS software, and I’m sure they will be working hard on getting the balance right between sharing location with wanted friends and avoided unwanted threats.

The major problem with the LBSs I’ve seen so far is they could more accurately be described as LBFs, or Location-Based Features. These applications don’t provide a full user social experience and don’t really stand up on their own.

As soon as Facebook and MySpace release their own location-based channel into their massive existing user bases, these LBS forerunners, as admirable as their pioneering work is, will be trumped out of the market. I don’t see significant, proprietary innovation occurring at the existing LBS firms, thereby reducing the incentive for Facebook and MySpace to acquire the technology rather than just building it themselves. Plus, any integration tasks would be as significant as building the service in the first place.

Many of the current LBSs seem to be aiming to compete with Yelp’s user-generated business review service. Again, they can quickly be trumped as it will be easier for Yelp to build an iPhone app that pulls GPS coordinates than it will be for a brand-spanking new LBS to build a competitive database of user reviews. Loopt has partnered with Yelp to use its reviews, but again, once Yelp builds the app, why won’t I just use that? Yelp already has my bookmarks and personal reviews, both which would be very useful on the mobile app.

LBS Logo Collage

Venturing a little off topic:

Imagine creating a review while you’re still at the restaurant! (Or after walking out the door if your girlfriend doesn’t approve of you tinkering on your phone during dinner.) The app knows what restaurant you’re at (as long as you have a GPS signal). It can ask you questions to prompt things you might forget later: “Was the service attentive?” or “Were the bathrooms clean?” You can upload photos of the food or interior while you’re still there.

Back on topic:

One last thing.

We don’t know how a LBS should be designed yet because it creates a new paradigm for the way society interacts.

This isn’t the fault of the current providers, but it does highlight the challenge they face it meeting customer demands and continuously upgrading and modifying interactions. For example, how often will I want even my friends to know where I am? How often will I end up changing my discoverability status back and forth? What if I turn discoverability off for an annoying “friend” but then we run into each other at the bar — will I have to lie to cover the fact that I’m digitally hiding from him? Will my phone prompt me for my status every time it detects I’m walking out of my house?

Nobody knows the answers to these questions just yet, but I think we’ll know soon enough.