http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/11/AR2009021101595.html
In this site they discuss how now Google offers you a way to displaying your location from your emails. Now everyone can see exactly where you are at when replying and sending email. If you traveled a lot then I could see how this might be useful for someone, but other then that it seems just like a feature not really useful. I feel like it’s just a way to satisfy people’s curiosity.
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/17-02/lp_10coolapps
In this article they discuss the top 10 applications that make the most out of location awareness. The ones that I liked to most were trapster, inap, shopsavvy, and safetynet. Inap actually keeps tracks of where you are and then notifies you when it’s time to wake and get going. That was just a simple idea, but the fact that it’s an idea that can finally be put to life is amazing. One of the big reasons that I am for location awareness is because it can be helpful in dangerous situations. I hope that in the future it can help more people in that get in accidents or need help by automatically calling out for help and giving the destination. That in a way is what safety net is helpful in providing.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/16/facebook-myspace-ignore-location-on-iphone-at-their-peril/
Here they are talking about how the new apps for Facebook and Myspace didn’t include location awareness on them. Also how that it was an issue holding them back from truely expanding and gathering new users. I can see how that would be a feature worth looking into, but they need to work out all the kinks before they even think about going ahead with that idea. They need to make sure it’s restricted and safe. Don’t have the creeps hacking in and stalking people. The one thing neither Myspace or Facebook needs is that kind of bad publicity.
I think that in our field location awareness is going to make an impact in the way people want to see things. It’ll make users more curious and we’ll have to satisfy their needs in some way. If we don’t keep their attention then they’ll go off to another site and find what they want there. Location awareness could be good if we could use it in a way to display sites differently to those different geographics viewing the site. I’m not sure how well that would turn out, but it’s something to think about.
