Ask the Crowd About the Buzz at a Venue

Localmind

Localmind allows you to ask questions of people at specific locations. For example, if you are thinking of heading out to your local bar you could ask Localmind whether the place is buzzing or not. If another Localmind user is at the bar they receive the question on their phone and can respond in real-time.

If you are Localmind user when you check-in with your favourite check-in service (such as Foursquare, Gowalla, or Facebook Places) you become available to be sent a question about that location. If a fellow user has a question about that location, you receive a notification and can respond in real-time.

Localmind users earn karma every time that they contribute something useful. You earn 5 karma points for checking-in at a venue, and 10 karma points for answering a question at a venue.

The Localmind website uses Google Maps to show you where Localmind experts are currently available to answer your questions. Localmind is also available as an iPhone app, which you will need to get the full benefit of the service.

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Share Your World with Google Maps

Mobnotes

Mobnotes lets you share your location with friends, share your favourite places, search for venues around you and view other people in your vicinity. The application is available from the desktop and as an iPhone and Android app.

Google Maps is used extensively by Mobnotes. The home page features a real-time animated map of the latest check-ins made by users of Mobnotes. You can also use Google Maps to show your location and to view places/venues and other users nearby.

You can also use Mobnotes to let your friends know where you’ll be at a particular time. You can specify a location and inform your friends when you will be there using the Mobnotes 'Events' feature.

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Get Great Local Advice from the Crowd

Crowdbeacon

Crowdbeacon is a great new app that lets you ask location based questions. The app is available for the iPhone and for the desktop.

Using the app you can click on a Google Map to set your location (if you are using your phone your location will be detected automatically). Once you have determined your location you can then ask your question. For example, you could ask where the best restaurant for tapas is nearby or ask if there is anywhere with live music in the neighborhood.

Your question is then posted to other Crowdbeacon users in your vicinity. When you sign up to Crowdbeacon you are asked to choose one category that you are willing to help people in your home city with (i.e, nightlife, shopping, restaurants etc.). This self-identified choice powers the Crowdbeacon notification system, which lets the user know that someone in their city has a question about the category they chose.

I asked Crowdbeacon for a great place to get breakfast on Van Ness Ave in San Francisco. Despite it being 2.30 am I started getting suggestions in a matter of seconds. Which is pretty impressive (unfortunately, as I was actually in London, I couldn't check out how good any of the suggestions were).

If no one nearby is listening and you don't get a real-time repsonse Crowdbeacon will answer your question with relevant information from other location-based services such as Yelp, Foursquare and Wishpond.

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Location Based Reminders

Geoloqi

Geoloqi is an iPhone app with some great location sharing features. The features of Geoloqi include Geonotes, automatic Foursquare checkins, and private real-time GPS tracking.

Similar to Glympse, Geoloqi allows you to share your location with those you want to, for a limited time. Your friends can then view your location on a Google Map only for the time that you have defined.

The Geonote option allows you to leave a message in a location and have it e-mailed, texted or pushed to you when you get to that location. You can therefore send yourself a message reminding yourself to pick up milk. You can set the location so that you receive the Geonote when you are passing the store. Or you could leave yourself a note at work reminding yourself about an important task.

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Social Networking with Google Maps

LikeOurselves

LikeOurselves uses Google Maps to help you find people, around your current location, who share your interests. LikeOurselves shows you where these people are, tells you what you have in common and provides you with the means to let you chat.

Once you share your location with LikeOurselves you can view the venues around you where people are currently checked-in on a Google Map . If you then select a venue you can view the people who are available to chat.

If you are ready to chat you can select the the 'hi' option. If anyone else has also selected the 'hi' option you are then free to chat to each other.

LikeOurselves is available from your desktop or from your mobile so you can find potential friends either at home or when out and about.

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Secure Zone Location Sharing

SpotWalla

SpotWalla is a location sharing service with some excellent privacy settings to ensure that you only share your personal data with those that you have given permission.

SpotWalla users can share their location information via trips and / or location pages. Tracks of your trips can be shared on their own Google Map and can be embedded on your own website or blog. Location pages allow multiple users to share their last known location on a single Google Map.

The SpotWalla home page features links to the most popular tracks created with the service. You can also choose to view the most recent and the most active tracks.

With SpotWalla you can define secure zones in which your location will never be displayed. You can set-up secure zones for your home, your place of work or any other location. Once you have defined a secure zone your location will not be shared when you enter those areas.

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