Caroline McCarthy, chief writer for the social, figure that if there’s any reason why mobile social networking hasn’t taken off yet, it’s the lack of built-in location awareness. But with announcements lately, such as the 3G iPhone release, showing a heck of a lot more location awareness built into devices and services alike, McCarthy figures this could all change soon.
Many of the mobile social networks that have arrived on the market thus far have been new names in the tech industry, but bigger names such as Yahoo and their OneConnect service which is to launch in a few months, are showing that mobile networks aren’t just a fad in passing. But there are still barriers.
First off, it’s really only been the newest devices on the market featuring the technology needed to make mobile networking a hit. Many of us don’t have the phones, nor the data plans to make these types of services work. Another barrier is the fact that social networks already available, such as Loopt, are only available with certain cellular carriers and their compatible handsets. This is a huge problem when it comes to consumer adoption. There market is slashed exponentially right from the get go. Open platforms such as Google’s Android may change this however.
Probably the biggest barrier to consumer adoption of location-aware services, and in the future location-aware mobile social networks, is privacy worries. Most of us don’t like the idea of not knowing who knows where we are, and with cellphones being an extension of ourselves these days, our location can be broadcast to anyone at all times. Michael Sharon, co-founder of Socialight, thinks that once location-aware mobile apps go beyond the uncomfortable connotations of “friend-finding”, and toward a model that’s more geared to showing you what’s around you, privacy worries may fade.
And once it hits this point, look for it to evolve just as the internet did. That’ll be a different world altogether.
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