The rollout of Facebook Places was supposed to spell certain doom for check-in companies such as Foursquare and GoWalla, and the whole check-in and location-based services infrastructure, right? But it hasn’t exactly happened that way, says DoubleDutch CEO Lawrence Coburn, who spoke yesterday at Bolo 2010 in Scottsdale.

For sure, Facebook Places is powerful, and is likely to play a key role in powering services such as Zynga via its omniscient API, says Coburn, whose company provides check-in capabilities on an enterprise basis (See Mike Boland’s June interview with the company.) But after the first inning, Coburn notes that Foursquare is still likely far ahead with 4 million users.

It isn’t an apples-to-apples contest, either. In fact, the check-in ecosystem is a complex one, broken down into one-person content companies and group content, notes Coburn. Companies might specialize in LAT Long Detection, LAT Long Translation, The Social Graph, Content, Game Mechanics and/or Monetization. The latter needs more work, says Coburn.

A big payoff, however, is likely, especially as a second wave of interest in geo-applications gets under way from brands, city guides, events and universities. Basically, it is all about “asset tracking for people,” Coburn says.

The post Bolo 2010: DoubleDutch Expounds on the Expanding Check-In Ecosystem appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Some people (like me) don’t like games. Game mechanics-driven “check in” media like Foursquare, GoWalla, Loopt and BrightKite mostly leave them cold.

But what if check-ins triggered group buying discounts? That’s the concept behind GroupTabs, a new service launching in New York City next week. The idea is that offers could be floated on smartphones with a one- or two-hour window, and users can check in at the location. When enough people arrived, the discount (“20% off Wine Bar Purchases”) would kick in. The location pays a fee for the promotion if it reaches its threshold.

Led by former Citysearch sales exec Zane Friedman, GroupTabs began development in April. It has adopted Foursquare’s open API for check-ins, and plans to work with other check-in systems as well. One modification it has made is that it requires check-ins to be made at the location: Foursquare lets you do it all from your home or other locations.

“We give people a reason to try LBS [location-based services],” says mobile vet Josh Malin, who is part of the three-person start-up team. “Immediacy determines what they’re doing. They are not in it for the badge.”

Malin says the site will begin with one deal a day, and maybe add several deals a day after it starts adding some volume. He anticipates that the deals will be much smaller than Groupon-like deals, since they’ll mostly be tailored to bars and restaurants. Average deals might have 20 or 30 buyers. When New York is fully developed, additional markets may be pursued, perhaps up or down the East Coast, or San Francisco.

GroupTabs will obviously be limited to busy metro areas. Not many suburban areas will have 30 people ready to buy a drink down the street when they are gassing up or whatever.

The post GroupTabs: Check-Ins = Group Buying appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Following the previous post about Facebook’s potential to be a category killer in the quickly budding mobile LBS market, could Google do the same?

Like Facebook, the question comes down to Google’s sheer scale and installed base. It hasn’t done much with Latitude — the closest comparison to the new crop of mobile location-based services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Loopt, etc.

But a new angle has emerged when looking at its latest launch: Buzz. Many have written off Buzz as Google’s latest leap into the social media pool, which in the past has resulted in flops such as Orkut. This was made worse by what many believe to be a false start and unnatural fusion with Gmail.

But the place where Buzz seems to have some potential is in mobile — something we and others began to point out after it launched. The idea is that Buzz updates from friends or even non-friends are appended with automatic (though opt-in) location tags.

TechCrunch expands on the topic in a well-argued piece from MG Siegler (perhaps the world’s foremost Foursquare evangelist). Google’s installed base of Gmail users and a local listings database seem to constitute the intersection where Buzz could really shine.

That’s another key to why Buzz (and check-in services as a whole) works as a location service: with it, Google finally understands that people don’t want to let others know their GPS coordinates. That means nothing to most people. Instead, Buzz lets you select an actual place (like a restaurant, for example), and send that out with your message.

People understand the concept of places, not coordinates. And Google, thanks to its Search and Maps businesses, happens to have databases of more places than probably any other company out there. With Buzz, they’re finally using it.

Read the rest of the post here.

The post Mobile Social Networking: Don’t Rule Out Google appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Following the previous post about Facebook’s potential to be a category killer in the quickly budding mobile LBS market, could Google do the same?

Like Facebook, the question comes down to Google’s sheer scale and installed base. It hasn’t done much with Latitude — the closest comparison to the new crop of mobile location-based services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Loopt, etc.

But a new angle has emerged when looking at its latest launch: Buzz. Many have written off Buzz as Google’s latest leap into the social media pool, which in the past has resulted in flops such as Orkut. This was made worse by what many believe to be a false start and unnatural fusion with Gmail.

But the place where Buzz seems to have some potential is in mobile — something we and others began to point out after it launched. The idea is that Buzz updates from friends or even non-friends are appended with automatic (though opt-in) location tags.

TechCrunch expands on the topic in a well-argued piece from MG Siegler (perhaps the world’s foremost Foursquare evangelist). Google’s installed base of Gmail users and a local listings database seem to constitute the intersection where Buzz could really shine.

That’s another key to why Buzz (and check-in services as a whole) works as a location service: with it, Google finally understands that people don’t want to let others know their GPS coordinates. That means nothing to most people. Instead, Buzz lets you select an actual place (like a restaurant, for example), and send that out with your message.

People understand the concept of places, not coordinates. And Google, thanks to its Search and Maps businesses, happens to have databases of more places than probably any other company out there. With Buzz, they’re finally using it.

Read the rest of the post here.

The post Mobile Social Networking: Don't Rule Out Google appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.