DISQUS

John · 6 months ago

Walk by an electronic billboard that targets an ad based on profile info emitted from your handheld a la Minority Report?

Any predictions on when that will happen as there are now electronic billboards in elevators, in the back of taxis, on sidewalks, etc.?

Matt Brezina · 6 months ago

Hey Mark - this implicit web stuff gets me so excited. That is one of the reasons I was really excited to bring Josh on as an investor in Xobni - he really gets it. At Xobni we have so many more plans for that data exhaust in email - can you imagine what your email client knows about your purchase history (all of your receipts go there) or your travel history (all of your flight confirmations go there)? It is nuts.

I think you've nailed it when you say location is next. I think a lot of people have been calling that web 3.0

I just installed CitySense on my iphone to see what they are doing with location data. They'll tell you what area of your city has the most activity (based on active cell phones) and what areas are "hotter" than normal. I'm hoping to find out about all kinds of events and gatherings I otherwise would never have known about.

very cool stuff. good article.

petekazanjy · 6 months ago

This seems to be where Yahoo was trying to go with FireEagle, but I haven't seen any developers tie into this yet.

You have things like Dodgeball / Foursqaure (son of Dodgeball!) that require active checking in, and we know that this is always a block for so many users. Passivity is key, like you said.

This is something I was hoping for with Yelp's iPhone app. If it notices that I was stationary in a location that correlates to a restaurant in their database, shouldn't they prompt me to ask how I liked it?

I think there's some great opportunities here.

donstuff · 6 months ago

That is a way off. Constantly tracking your location would completely mow through the battery on any smartphone. You'd have to get a great deal of utility to put up with such a battery hit.

I work on smartphones and know that they will be battery constrained for the forseeable future.

You'd need something the size of a lunchbox to make this feasible.

10things.me · 6 months ago

Also, look at what http://askaround.me/ does. It's basically a very simple Q&A sites but for local searches only. So you can find out where's the best restaurant near you, find your new house, or even search for your lost dog.