The Rise Of Proximity
Geo-location has been a buzz word since Foursquare’s launch at SXSW in 2009. But despite healthy growth and even with the advent of Facebook Places last year, it’s never really become mainstream. Most people still don’t see a value in it. Proximity however is the evolution of geo-location. It’s the marriage of location data and relevance. We’re seeing new manifestations of geo-located data that tie users into a locale that means something to them. Two examples have caught my eye recently - Color & Home Elephant (video intro’s below). Both of these iPhone apps tap us into our location but also connect us with users nearby… in realtime. Color does it through photos (- imagine seeing what the view is like courtside) whilst Home Elephant does it via simple neighbourhood updates (though hopefully not always catch-the-thief style updates). Proximity apps don’t tell us that a friend has checked into an airport on the other side of the world, they only tell us what is relevant nearby. So whilst I’m not sure that Color will be the next Twitter, I’ll stick my neck out and say that Proximity will overtake geo-location as the next buzzword and could well bring location into the mainstream. Thanks to @BrainPicker for pointing out Home Elephant
