Location-Based Applications: A Look at 7 Top Apps. by Shauna Causey, @ShaunaCausey.

1. Location, Location, Location. Location Based Applications: A Look at 7 Top Apps. by @ShaunaCausey

2. Foursquare (@Foursquare)Lovingly Made in NYC. Our new past time: stalking each other. “A Scavenger Hunt on Steroids.” “Could Be The Next Twitter” –Mashable Article from 2009

3. Why it stands out: Simple and Easy: It’s the Craigslist of location based applications. Fosters friendly competition: Mayorship: if you check in the most at a location, you become mayor. Points tally: Shows points between friends and an overall points system for the entire city. Longer term rewards: collect badges for all kinds of different reasons.

4. See Your Friends:

5. A list of local spots. “Places” tab: Note: Some of the locations are not real locations. For instance, people may enter their house or a name for their house like the “Castle in the Clouds.”

6. See tips about local places:

7. FLAIR! Collect Badges:

8. Competition: Collect Points, See Your Rank Against Others.

9. Credit: www.StatusThis.com

10. Gowalla (@Gowalla) Lovingly Made in Austin, Texas

11. A recent Gowalla cause related campaign:

12. Gowalla: Your Passport to the World. A travel game that rewards you for visiting places. Collect stamps on your phone, similar to when you’re traveling abroad and visiting countries. Gather virtual souvenirs, or what they call “icons,” that can be traded with friends or hidden for others to find.

13. Gowall Tabs Passport: Your general overview of how many places you’ve visited (similar to a real passport). Spots section: Shows you nearby venues/businesses. Trips: A related collection of spots. If you visit all the spots in the a “trip” you earn a certain a “Pin of Glory,” an award to you for completing specific trips. Friends’ Activity: Similar to Foursquare, people you know and accept as friends (who can see where you’re located).

14. Passport Tab:

15. Trips Tab: Ideas for a series of things to do in an area:

16. urbanspoonWhy it Stands Out: Creative interface. Started as a resource for Seattle, then branched out to other cities.

17. It’s fun to use! Shake the phone! Choose a category, shake the phone, ideas flip through until it lands on one. Shake it again for a new idea.

18. Great overview of local restaurants.

19. Map incorporated which is helpful:

20. Yelp (@Yelp) Why it Stands Out: All the info you can ever need for the ultimate foodie. In an easy format. You can also check-in similar to Foursquare. Comprehensive: In my tests, it had the best information on local restaurants of any other location based app. By far. No contest. Reader reviews, price comparisons, and photos of the food/business location are helpful.

21. Tab Showing Nearby Restaurants

22. Check out all the information! Easy format.

23. Digging Deeper for more info on a specific restaurant. I’m going to eat at Cactus!

24. Now that I’m at Cactus, I have some options:

25. Looking up some photos to figure out what to order:

26. The photos helped me figure out what to order: Soft tacos.

27. Starbucks! (@Starbucks)Seattle-based. Why it Stands Out: If you are addicted to coffee and enjoy Starbucks coffee, this app will make your life easier. Helpful features: Save your favorite drinks Save your friends’ favorite drinks Find the nearest Starbucks store

28. Nice interface. Easy to use.

29. Easily find the nearest Starbucks.

30. Save your friends’ favorite drinks for the next coffee run.

31. CauseWorld: Geolocation For Good.Helping injured puppies, one check-in at a time. Why it stands out: A great idea: cause marketing Sponsor Support Where it falls short: Can’t see friends’ check-ins Can’t see a real impact/proof of how you’re karma points help Can’t add friends from other social media networks

32. “The wonderful thing about the service is that big corporations have an incentive to donate more to charity. They get regular people to choose where that money goes... The folks at Citi and Kraft are brilliant for jumping on this early.”- Michael Arrington, TechCrunch

33. Nice interface & graphics. Easy to use.

34. Collect karma points to donate to non-profits:

35. Donate Page:

36. See how other people are using their karma points. But, who are these people? I am not connected to them.

37. “More” Page. I’d like to invite friends…

38. This is what comes up when I click “Invite Friends.” An auto populated message. I did not like this feature, didn’t send the message to any friends.

39. Whrrl (@Whrrl)Photos, Seattle-based.Slides provided by Whrrl.

40. 40 Select Select Select Basic User Experience User checks in Local places User controls privacy On the grid Users check in everywhere they go in Whrrl to be “on the grid” (visible to friends), remember and share the places they go and the people they spend time with. Pelago, Inc. Confidential

41. 41 Select Select Merchant Offers Users check in and will see merchant offers pop up nearby. Pelago, Inc. Confidential

42. 42 Societies Select 30 240 Whrrl Societies are circles of people who share the same real world patterns. The purpose of Societies is to share “insider knowledge” in the form of recommendations, offers and stories.

43. 43 Whrrl Stories Users can capture their experiences with photos and notes, and share updates with friends on Facebook and Twitter. Users can invite friends join to their check-ins. Their friends’ photos and notes are grouped into their story. Pelago, Inc. Confidential

44. 44 Offers Can Activate Social Activity Select Check-ins are opportunities to activate customers at place- opportunities to activate sharing to Twitter/Facebook, capture rich media and activate new experiences.

45. 45 Pilot Opportunities

46. Why Do You Use Location Based Apps?

49. Others that are noteworthy… Loopt BrightKite AroundMe Moximity Where Limbo! Gypsii CitySense MobiLuck Plazes Google Latitude iPling

50. One that I’m now trying out…

51. Resources www.LBSZone.com (difficult layout but has good info) www.Mashable.com Will somebody please create a great location-based services blog? 