Navigation and tracking are practical services that will be highly
valued by users, in that all these same services can also be
linked to advertising and commerce to provide, for example,
directions to the nearest Italian restaurant, or to a store with
current sales promotions.
Location-based services will offer value to applications
that benefit from geographically filtered information. These
applications can eliminate the effort required to locate or
request data by first determining what data might be relevant
to the user’s location. Knowing that I am currently in a mall
would be useful if I am searching for listings of shoe stores—
the application can first serve up those shoe stores that are
located in the mall before offering those that are across
town.
Key drivers for location-based service applications are:
• Ability to filter content based on geographic relevance.
Information, places, or listings of events that are close to a
user’s current location. Special information can be in the form
of alerts to hazards or situations that can impact the end user.
• Ability to identify and transmit location. When users are lost
or otherwise unable to communicate, such as after an accident
or injury.
• Community-building possibilities. Applications that utilize the
end user’s location to match them with others interested in
the same activity or event including dating, finding sports
activity partners, and the like.162