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This article bothers me. The author says that we should check in downtown and announce that we're hungry or need a gift somewhere "and then sit back and watch t

This article bothers me. The author says that we should check in downtown and announce that we're hungry or need a gift somewhere "and then sit back and watch the discounts roll in." 1) I'm a little tired of tech bloggers stating their own opinion on what a company should be doing as fact. A a little more humility here would be appreciated; they would be high priced consultants if their ideas were so golden. 2) If someone wants food, they're going to pull that information down on a service like yelp. That's a much more appropriate context for offers to be exposed, too. If tons of appealing offers have not surfaced in sites like yelp, why would they appear in LBS services? * * I'm not saying LBS can't monetize, but the issue is more likely that the local deal / advertising market is not there yet, not that the LBS companies need to hire techcrunch writers for ideas.

doron 16y ago
I somewhat support this point of view, from admittedly selfish interests. I dont support advertising schemes online that dont give me (the consumer) something. i.e i expect online advertising to create a system where if I choose to click, I am rewarded with a discount,or some such, otherwise they just impede on my time (and on my phone, its not trivial, ads take longer time to download any content) Many useful sites and services seem to completely rely on advertising as opposed to the service they actually provide, this is all well and good, but as long as advertising is the same mode of operation it used to be offline (and what did change between offline and online? metrics, nothing much else) i agree with you that I dont think LBS can monetize until the advertising market creates another alternative. The concept of online advertising is generally a two way, service provider and ad provider, it would be better if it will be a three way, rewarding the consumer as well.
robryan 16y ago
The checkin step then becomes kind of redundant, why would a shop want to hide their discounts to those that physically walk into their shop, wouldn't they prefer someone to either enter in or "check in" to get say a 1 or 2km radius of the deals on offer then decide from that. Without the game aspect I think actually physically checking in at a location loses appeal as it's not needed for the deals.
anthonycerra 16y ago
I can empathize with the sentiment of the article. I can't understand why you want the blogger to keep his ideas to himself, though. I appreciate these types of articles because, quite frankly, I'm tired of hearing only about the latest round of funding XYZ location-based "game" company raised. It's healthy to question fundamental things like the usefulness of these services.
foljs 16y ago
"""A a little more humility here would be appreciated; they would be high priced consultants if their ideas were so golden.""" You'd be surprised to see how many "high priced consultants" have sank companies. Or how many bloggers have had better ideas...

doron 16y ago

I somewhat support this point of view, from admittedly selfish interests. I dont support advertising schemes online that dont give me (the consumer) something. i.e i expect online advertising to create a system where if I choose to click, I am rewarded with a discount,or some such, otherwise they just impede on my time (and on my phone, its not trivial, ads take longer time to download any content) Many useful sites and services seem to completely rely on advertising as opposed to the service they actually provide, this is all well and good, but as long as advertising is the same mode of operation it used to be offline (and what did change between offline and online? metrics, nothing much else) i agree with you that I dont think LBS can monetize until the advertising market creates another alternative. The concept of online advertising is generally a two way, service provider and ad provider, it would be better if it will be a three way, rewarding the consumer as well.

robryan 16y ago

The checkin step then becomes kind of redundant, why would a shop want to hide their discounts to those that physically walk into their shop, wouldn't they prefer someone to either enter in or "check in" to get say a 1 or 2km radius of the deals on offer then decide from that. Without the game aspect I think actually physically checking in at a location loses appeal as it's not needed for the deals.

anthonycerra 16y ago

I can empathize with the sentiment of the article. I can't understand why you want the blogger to keep his ideas to himself, though. I appreciate these types of articles because, quite frankly, I'm tired of hearing only about the latest round of funding XYZ location-based "game" company raised. It's healthy to question fundamental things like the usefulness of these services.

foljs 16y ago

"""A a little more humility here would be appreciated; they would be high priced consultants if their ideas were so golden.""" You'd be surprised to see how many "high priced consultants" have sank companies. Or how many bloggers have had better ideas...