Location is one of the features that a lot of the Twitter apps tack on using things like the iPhone’s geolocation services. It’s a cool feature, but not enough people use it. But they are likely to now that Twitter is adding native support for it with a new API.
At first, Twitter is releasing this as a developer preview, co-founder Biz Stone notes on the blog today. This means that third-party apps will be the first to have access to the feature. But Stone also says that support for location on Twitter’s mobile and regular site will come as well. And it’s important to note that the feature will be opt-in, meaning that by default it will be off for users, but if they want to use it, they can turn it on.
And they should, because this is potentially a very powerful new feature. Just imagine if a friend tweets something and you can see exactly where they are when they do it. There are no shortage of location-based services attempting to take off right now, but Twitter already has a huge user base and depending on how developers use this new API, Twitter location could replace or bolster many of them. And that’s good news because the main problem that many of these location-based services have is a lack of users.
Just imagine if a service like Foursquare was able to send your actual location to Twitter alongside the name of the place you are at. That would save the people who follow you on Twitter but don’t use Foursquare the hassle of looking up the location of the place you are at if they want to meet up with you. It’s potentially powerful stuff.
Are there privacy implications? Sure, but that’s why it’s important that this feature is opt-in, at least for now.
But Twitter is hardly the only big player entering the location arena. Google has made a series of moves recently to show its support of location-based computing going forward. None is bigger than its Latitude service which is a location-based social network that shows you where your contacts are. And Google also recently introduced location support for Google Maps and the mobile version of its search engine, so if you search for something like a restaurant on your iPhone, it can know where you are and serve up a result close by.
And continuing the Facebook versus Twitter saga, it’s interesting to note that Facebook has yet to introduce anything involving location yet. I say “yet” because I think we all know it’s coming. And that will be a big wildcard in the location space because unlike Google, Facebook’s primary purpose is to be a social network where you keep track of friends. And whereas Twitter has tens of millions of users, Facebook has over 250 million users, so how they would react to something like location will be interesting. Hopefully, like Twitter, they’re smart enough to make it opt-in also, at least at first.
One way Facebook could have quietly integrated location is with its new iPhone app, something with former TechCrunch developer Henry Work noted the other day. However, they didn’t do that, and now with Twitter in the game, they risk once again losing out to them in a hot new field.
[photo: flickr/pixeljones]
tweet tweet I’m up a tree.
altitude readings. smart!
Like, “at 30,000 feet having sex in my private jet with your girlfriend”?
So long google latitude
Never did see what that is.
Probably a good thing.
Foursquare will have the best implementation of this I bet.
it will be very useful for foursquare. hope those guys take advantage of these APIs ASAP.
I am workin on getting a developer preview
Wow.. This is going to be a great feature. The next thing will be to serve ads based on tweet location to someone’s phone. Will be interesting to see how they pull that off.
Dude! That’s awesome! I can see how marketers can take advantage of this, but great addition none the less
This is great for kidnap victims!
that is true.
Now we can learn when they are beheaded faster.
And kidnappers!
That is also true.
Assuming you’re a kidnap victim who has been allowed access to a mobile phone or the Internet…
:-\
ya just staple a twitter enabled iphone to your kid, that takes care of amber alerts
They have alerts for Amber Lynn?
A very clever idea, getting ready to serve up location-based ads, eh!
I’m too damned broke to buy any of it.
this is awesome news!!! hopefully it will be easier to use foursquare now. yay!!!
How do they know your location? Maybe this is something for Twitter clients to figure out?
IP-geolocation for the website-sent tweets I expect. I guess they’ll work with the alternate Twitter web interfaces & mobile Twitter clients to get this on their apps as well.
Personally I’d like to see this as an extra demand on OAuth – otherwise people will be even more cautious over OAuth apps, regardless of whether they want to Write or just Read.
That’s true??
This is going to be a great feature…
I can’t stop thinking of the possibilities thanks to this. I hope TechCrunch has enough Raphael Caixeta love to write another article on one of my upcoming websites =).
who is raphael
Future owner of the Prison Hoochy Live! Multimedia Entertainment Network.
Knows his market, implements it perfectly.
All hail Mighty Raphael
Cant we all just live in an obscure world filled with accurate and verifiable data… why do we need to skip steps to pinpoint location? Too much data insecurity to throw on an added layer of geo-locational precision for my exact whereabouts. I opt out.
I don’t want to know where I am AT ALL. I will opt out also.
Truly exciting!!!
Great post. Pleasant reading.
Guess Brightkite will have a bit of tough time from now on.
Can think of a lot of cool apps around this. All the current apps which rely on advertising can also provide a more targetted location-based advertising!
@sriray
http://www.arktan.com
Twitter is a mess. Their target is all over the map. First its techies, then celebrities, and now marketing. Who is their primary customer and how does gelocation fit? And what about all those twitter clients? I’m confused.
Great! Now all they need is for people to actually use Twitter!
Oh wait…
I think this is great! We’ll be adding this to SHUB.me as soon as the API is released. SHUB already sends location to Twitter – it will be interesting to see how the new API ties location in.
Cheating on you’re wife just got harder!
lol i guess we need come up another idea !
Don’t twitter, Im doin wifes BFF?
Sounds awesome, definitely been waiting for this and it is clearly a logical extension. Been over a year since the first Twitter app had location (Mike Lee’s Twinkle) and can’t wait to see all the major apps, specifically Tweetie, Twittelator Pro and Twitterfon implement it.
i often contemplate what a natural language location based discovery engine will look like.
You often contemplate the lint in your navel.
don’t you get it, retard, no one will ever care about your stupid list of URLs, and let’s be clear — that’s all it is. You have no tech, no talent, and no business. Do you think it’s a coincidence that everyone mocks your stupid business and you can’t raise money or get attention for it? It’s because it sucks.
You should contemplate finding a lover or at least a dog.
Given that 40% of all tweets are pointless babble as reported by pearanalytics
http://www.pear...ts-about-usage/
I hope that the other 60% some of who do opt-in to reveal their geo-location will tweet something that is contextually relevant to their location.
LBS has been around MG. Don’t know why you seem to think that twitter’s adoption of it is so profound.
Its twitter, dude. Come on, don’t be a downer.
Mg loves anything related to Twitter or Foursquare. A font change will get them published on Techcrunch.
All you other companies, too bad. You have to be good friends with MG to get written up by him. Nepotism at its best!
Any thoughts on the location resolution this will have? Is it as accurate as GPS (multiple meters), IP accurate (you’re in a city) or ???
The accuracy of the IP can vary greatly – in USA the location is usually fairly accurate (up to a few city blocks), whereas other places (china / India) – the location would not be as accurate (maybe sometimes only to country).
There is also different databases of IP – location – so they also vary in Quality of location.
I used to include ICBM headers in all my stuff
http://www.catb...BM-address.html
twitter goes for the right way
http://geo-twitter.appspot.com
I have made a geo-twitter web site about 1 year ago, but as the article said, ‘Problem is lack of users:-( ‘
If twitter has a native support of locations, it’s really a great news to me:-)
what is your site call
Amongst other things, I think this has a lot of implications for businesses who could use it to deliver incredible service to their customers. More thoughts here – http://hawkinso...8211;a-lot.html
As with any development, it comes with some privacy and offline real-world security concerns, but it’s great that it’s opt-in and the benefits outweigh the risks.
bye bye google latitude.
The location data should be disseminated based on a per tweet, user chosen, privacy level (like Brightkite).
eg. If I’m out and about, I want every tweet to have exact coordinates shared with everyone. However, if I’m at my apartment using my iPhone from the couch, I may not be so keen on everyone knowing exactly where I live.
However, given twitter’s comprehension of user choice and their supposed inability to support them (oh btw, #FIXREPLIES!), I have very little confidence in any flexibility in the matter.
Great Feature!! Looking forward to using the API
It’d be interesting to see if they add the geolocation as data (part of the message) or metadata (message properties visually and search engine ready) or most likely both.
…another reason why the i phone is definitely something i dont need…
It’s really a useful function.
TWitter location added with a dating service will rock – Killer app of the century would be a location based dating service on top of twitter
I already do this using services like ipoki.com and brightkite which allow me to post my status and location to twitter.
I suppose the big difference will be that it will be the twitter client software itself which will transmit the location.
I like to distinguish where I am right now and my ‘base’ twitter location. So hopefully this api will give you the choice as to whether you update your Twitter ‘base’ location or not
wouldnt keeping this on be like a security threat! especially if updates are open for all to view, then somebody could track my geographical movements thru tweets. I think thats too much info to put out for public.
This is awesome news!!! hopefully it will be easier to use foursquare now. Thanks for the blog.
This will be fun to spoof.
This seems like a great new feature. Although it could potentially have some dangers, it can be put to great use! For example, businesses can see which customers of theirs are local and use this to their advantage.
Not a good idea at all! How do we know one of our Followers is not a serial k—- or ax murderer in secret….stupid, stupid idea….Geeks need to use some Brains!!
I like this feature, you can know where i am when i want you join me in a bar~~~
Wi2Geo http://www.wi2geo.ru/ does the same
i think this is a good idea smal buisness can get a idea of what location wants what for their buisness