Newspaper Article- Week 11

The article I choose to write about this week is entitled “It Knows Where You Are, and What You’re Looking For” It was published on the second of November in the New York Times Technology section and was written by Claire Cain Miller. The article is talking about this new site that allows you to log in and see where your friends are and what they are about to do or what they planning on doing. ig Web companies and start-ups alike are scrambling to create the best applications to allow users to search for surrounding businesses and events from a mobile phone. Loopt, a service that lets people find their friends on the go, is now entering the crowded field. On Tuesday, Loopt will introduce a new search service, Pulse, on its Web site. An updated application for Apple’s iPhone will be available soon. Mainstream search engines from Google and Microsoft already offer local business listings, and the popular user review sites Yelp and Citysearch have mobile phone applications. Smaller sites like NearbyNow and Metromix are also jumping into mobile search, which uses the GPS capability in many cellphones to figure out where a person is and show ads for nearby businesses. “Everybody’s got an eye on the mobile space and location as a central part of the search experience, but I don’t think there is some definitive app,” said Greg Sterling, an analyst on local mobile search. “It’s very elusive because it’s such an unwieldy segment.” Loopt aims to distinguish itself by making its service comprehensive. It incorporates feeds from 20 sources, including listings and review services like Zagat, Citysearch and Eventful as well as content sites like DailyCandy, Thrillist and The Village Voice. Pulse produces a personalized and ever-changing list of recommendations based on where you are, the time of day and Loopt’s own data on where you and your friends have been. It shows editorial descriptions and reviews from the partner sites and averages the ratings a business has received. Pulse also factors in more subjective factors, like which places are particularly popular with Loopt users at a given moment. That will help Pulse come up with recommendations that a site like Google might not, said Sam Altman, a Loopt co-founder. “One thing we’ve tried to do is strike a nice balance between purely algorithmic search and saying, “This is a brand-new and hot coffee shop that just opened in this city,’ ” he said. Pulse is a new direction for Loopt, which has been focused on helping people find friends who are nearby and checked into the service. Still, Ogilvy does not have many clients that are interested in location-based promotions, she said. “The issue with mobile right now is you don’t have a large enough audience size at the moment. That will change as the media channel grows.” Pulse will also share revenue with content partners like Citysearch. When a user reads a Citysearch review on Pulse and then clicks on the restaurant’s Web site, both Citysearch and Loopt will earn money. Yelp, one of the most popular sites for searching local businesses, is notably absent from Pulse. That is because Yelp was not convinced that Loopt would clearly show that its reviews and information came from Yelp, said Stephanie Ichinose, a Yelp spokeswoman. Mr. Altman said he hoped to cooperate with Yelp in the future. “I have huge respect for Yelp, and they’re probably the leader in the local content space right now, but I don’t think they’re better than everything else put together,” he said
I am not really sure which demographic this would be good for because I am a younger person and I would not be interested in my friends knowing my exact location every time I sign into my social networking site. The other thing I was worried about was what happens if you purchase the iPhone app and it never logs you off. Would your friends have access to your location that entire time? Honestly, I think this is really nice but who wants someone knowing where they are at all times??