Geo My Four Loko

 I'm not active on Foursquare because I don't find value in getting updates to my friend's physical location.  If I want to know where one person is I'll text them directly.  Yes, I'm simplifying the Foursquare experience, but that's my position currently.

However, knowing the physical location of things I'm searching for would provide tremendous value to me.  I want products to geo-locate themselves.  I want to send a text message to a bag of the new Late Night Cheeseburger Doritos and the remaining cases of Four Loco in New York City.  I want to see the physical product plotted on a map.  I want to sign-up for a service where product X from brand Y texts me when they've shown up at my local deli.

Above, a GoogleMaps search-results showing a New Jersey liquor store (only because the people-powered-search site ChaCha associated them with Four Loko). Below is the scenario I'm waiting for:

(This quick little illustration includes the notion that Four Loko brand could authenticate itself to the user through an MMS graphic and chat through some basic AI/language-recognition software, tweaked to the brand's specifications.) 

I believe our notion of LBS will drastically in the next few years and it will be much more significant to the consumer than what we currently know as LBS - which focuses on checking-in and mobile couponing.

The value behind Google's "Store View" is surely not in giving customers a visual peek of what the store looks like inside.  Instead it's one step closer to the customer getting an up-to-the-minute inventory of the merchandise available in the store.  With ever-cheaper RFID technology connecting products you're searching for and the loading dock and point-of-sale system of your local Gap - you'll be able to geo-locate the nearest pair of Jeans in your size.  Using Google Maps to find a store (or a website's store-locator) is only solves part of the customer need - as often it's not the store you're looking for - but the product itself.  Brands and stores are going to be pushed into providing real-time merchandise look-up to the customer.

And that will help my present-need, locating that frustratingly elusive malt-liquor-energy-drink and pairing it with a potentially horrendous new flavor of Doritos.  

Comments

[Tom]

Bravo. Bring it on. (Like most things, I believe I invented this like 10yrs ago)

[Google Map Listing]

Google map was an amazing site to all; it provides a certain directions, places and locations. This might be one of the most important sites that must prioritize. It implements new idea and suggest better solution. Thank you for these informative articles; hope to read more on this.