Tag: mobile geolocation

The latest mobile marketing efforts from the social networking giant could include location tracking.

Sources with knowledge in the areas have revealed that Facebook currently has a team developing a smartphone geolocation app that will track user locations in order to help to boost the effectiveness and relevance of the social media experience on those devices.

The app is currently believed to be slated for a mid-March release for more than a billion users.

According to the sources – who have opted to remain unnamed as the company has yet to release the details of this geolocation project to the public – the main purpose of the app is to allow its users to be able to find friends who are nearby. Regardless of whether or not the app is actually open on the handset, it will still collect data for this and other purposes that are relevant to the application.

This geolocation app is only one of many features that Facebook is continually adding to its mobile experience.

The company may also be using the geolocation data that it receives through the app to be able to enhance the profitability of its mobile marketing efforts – which it has announced will be a primary goal for 2013. This would allow it to gain access to a tremendous amount of user location information, as there are currently over one billion people who use their mobile devices to access their Facebook accounts.

The geolocation information that will be gathered will present a considerable mobile marketing opportunity for the social network, as it will be able to sell ads based on the daily habits and the whereabouts of the app users. This could prove to be highly appealing to many companies who are seeking just this sort of opportunity to take advantage of the high tech benefits that m-commerce has to offer.

At the same time, many consumers and privacy advocates have already been raising concerns about the way that the company manages the personal data that it collects and this may only incense them further. They are not alone in their doubts of the social network’s management and protection of sensitive data, as it has also received the scrutiny of European and American regulators.

Facebook is not alone in this type of geolocation initiative, as both Google Inc. and Apple Inc. have already both created and implemented their own versions of location tracking.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnAEsnjA8kE]

Two photographers have taken the mobile technology to a new level and created a fascinating exhibition.

Two photographers, named Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman, have joined efforts to create a photographic exhibition that they have entitled “Geolocation” due to the use of this form of mobile technology as they pursued public tweets and snapped images of the places where they took place.

In a unique and modern form of capturing the moment, this new style has drawn considerable attention.

The geolocation project is ongoing, as the artists continue their efforts to match moments with the places in which they occurred. The two photographers create the pieces by scanning through Twitter for messages that consist only of text, but that also include their location data. The next step is to actually travel to the precise spot that they feel that the tweet originated.

Once they find the place, the geolocation photograph is taken in order to provide a visual for the Tweet.

The result is a fascinating combination of everything from curious to clever and from sweet and touching to haunting and bizarre. Once the artists use the geolocation technology from the chosen tweet, it will usually take them a week or two to actually reach the precise spot. That said, there have been times that they have been able to find the place and take their photograph of the situation within an hour of having chosen the tweet that inspired it.

These contemporary artists make their best efforts to use the latest in geolocation to help to capture the situations that are generating the messages that are being publicly tweeted.

One picture, taken of the front of an auto parts and service shop came with the tweet caption “Cars are nothing but money pigs #hateit #waitingsucks #impoor”. Another shot of a car in a hotel parking lot that is otherwise mostly empty was captioned “Tell me I’m not making a mistake. Tell me you’re worth the wait.”

The photographers have already traveled in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada using geolocation technology and the social network posts. They hope that they will also be able to add the Middle East, Russia, South Korea, and Kosovo to their list.