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Mobile Travel 2.0

Bob Offutt 03/10/2008

From Dow Jones Venture Wire: With the private-beta launch of Yahoo Inc.'s new FireEagle location application, mobile start-ups are hopeful the product will bring them closer to the "holy grail" of handheld computing.

FireEagle, which allows users to update and share information on their whereabouts, will be an open platform, and location updates will be entirely in the hands of users. It was created to freely share information with applications such as Facebook and Twitter, giving social networks another dimension.

When combined, for example, with an application like Facebook, a location application can give a mobile user who is traveling the option to seek out friends in the area, read reviews they may have written of nearby businesses, or see photos they may have posted of local attractions.

Start-ups whose products could be enriched by location services, including Web 2.0 sites such as Driftr Inc., are taking notice.

"Being a travel-centric site, location is everything to us," said Ismail Elshareef, co-founder of travel-based social network Driftr. "We're anticipating a huge user base for FireEagle, and we already know there's an ever-growing user base for the iPhone. Our plan is to tap into those bases by offering...features based on both APIs to help convert those users into Driftrs, and in turn increase our own base."

Location services "have been overhyped, and they've failed," said Rich Wong, a partner at Accel Partners, a firm whose portfolio includes BitTorrent Inc., Facebook Inc. and Brightcove Inc. "People saw it as a [standalone] service, instead of as a key technology [to be meshed with other services]. As a key technology, it could be a massive success."

comments

On 09 April, 2008, Lyell Petersen wrote:
I agree with Rich Wong about location services needing to be a key technology. I'm actively looking to mesh geo-location into other Twitter mashups. Twitter was mentioned as a potential beneficiary of geo-location, but I have not seen anything of value there yet (not that it doesn't exist - just haven't found it). Loving Driftr. Excited to see how this plays out. Thanks for reposting this. @93octane @CruiseDeals

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