Checking in using a location based service, photo by lululemon athletica.
Location based services
More than one in four American adults now use social location-based services (LBS) of some kind, showing a rise in adoption as the services become mainstream, according to Pew Research based on their interviews of 2,277 adults this spring. Pew has announced the results, revealing that 28 percent of all American adults use some type of LBS or another.
Directions, check-ins, social network locations
23 percent of all American adults use phones to get directions or recommendations based on their current location with only four percent using their phones to physically check in to locations using geosocial services like Gowalla or Foursquare. The study showed that smartphone owners are “especially likely” to use these services.
Roughly one in ten people polled have set up social networks like Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn so their location is automatically included in their status updates.
One in four do one of the above
Altogether, 28 percent of American adults to at least one of the activities mentioned above and Pew research specialist Kathryn Zickuhr said, “Americans are not currently all that eager to share explicitly their location on social media sites, but they are taking advantage of their phones’ geolocation capabilities in other ways. Smartphone owners are using their phones to get fast access to location-relevant information on-the-go.”
While nearly three out of four adults to not use or rely upon location based services yet, this number is rapidly changing. Brokerages that take advantage of these services, have profiles on them, use them frequently, offer rewards for check-ins and the like are leveraging a technology that is becoming more mainstream but has a ways to go. Some are choosing to invest in them, others are waiting to see how the rules, use and adoption shift in coming years.
