Mad Men 360: Augmented Reality Breaks New Ground in Advertising

By Ron Callari

Mobile Advertising will set some new ground rules that will differentiate it from traditional ads in other mediums. Brands and advertising agencies are in development now to determine how to engage and target audiences to interact with a product or service using augmented reality overlays. Experience dating back to the Mad Men of the 1960s has shown that engagement moves the consumer from idea and awareness to familiarity and sale. Augmented Reality aids that process in ways not thought of, even a few years ago.

Working with mobile devices, augmented reality is used to overlay information markers from the virtual world onto real-life images. For example, street scenes can be enhanced where augmented reality applications apply overlaid context, images and/or videos relating to a business establishment’s pricing and promotions.

Augmented reality is a valuable adjunct to any type of marketing campaign.  However it hasn’t reached critical mass yet in terms of how many users can and will use it when it’s made available. This year, marketers will be looking closer at integrating AR to move their marketing message(s) forward. While there are presently no ad agencies that devote themselves solely to mobile augmented reality advertising, there are several new firms, consulting groups and brands that are experimenting within this space.

Tina Whitfield, CEO of EquisGlobal is one of the new breed of marketing firms testing the waters in this new arena. Her company is described as “a flexible organization that easily plays a ground game, gets dirty, goes guerilla, and drives impressive consumer acquisition numbers.” In a recent EConsultancy article titled Augmented Reality for Mobile Advertising, she espouses the need for augmented reality to reach beyond the ‘cool factor’ to become a ‘pleasant experience” in motivating new users.
In a recent interview with Whitfield, she talks about a dichotomy as to what software engineers are focused on versus ad agencies. “Creative agencies are trying to dance their way through technology and technology agencies are trying to sing their way through the science of branding,” she notes.

She asserts that mobile marketers need to embrace, hire, and learn from engineering and product management talent that are working on mobile handset development. “The data is there - tons of it - on how users like to engage with the mobile screen.  You don’t spend hundreds of millions of dollars developing a single handset without due diligence,” she says.

With such a small viewing screen, it would seem that smartphones aren’t the most ideal medium to view augmented reality ads. Whitfield disagrees. “Users who just want to see the world through that screen” might find the AR data feeds and overlays as clutter, but those who are seeking out data fields “find value in AR mobile advertising to assist them in finding restaurants, bars, emergency rooms and other types of facilities,” she says.

Users’ experiences vary, “but clutter is the result of the brand not standing out in proper balance to the scenery.” notes Whitfield. Too many, ads dropped into a street scene can be a turn-off and she emphasizes that, “most app developers wouldn’t allow this to happen, nor would most brand marketers.”

5th Finger is a firm that helps brands navigate the diverse technologies in the mobile space. When CEO, Patrick Collins compares AR ads to traditional online ads, he sees them having “less clutter.”  “On the web, most people are attuned to shutting out the clutter of ads around their content. The experience is newer and more engaging on the smartphone and so click-thru rates tend to be an order of magnitude higher with mobile advertising when compared to online advertising,” he asserts.

With the new tablets soon to be released to the public, perhaps the larger screens these devices offer will overcome the small viewing screen hurdle. While Apple’s new iPad will not include a camera, the HP Tablet and the Dell Mini 5 (with a screen slightly larger than and iPhone) might be the answer. While Whitfield dismisses this option due to the weight of these devices being too cumbersome, Christopher Barger, director of global social media for General Motors says “larger viewing screens are definitely a great feature of tablets and they certainly set the stage for a second application renaissance and plenty of opportunities for Chevy products.”

Barger believes augmented reality mobile advertising is another avenue to support brand awareness versus creating a cause-and-effect sales transaction.  He points to the example of cars being a consumer’s ’second largest purchase decision in life.’ While mobile augmented advertising will not sell the vehicle outright, it will “continue to shape the brand’s image in conjunction with wider advertising, marketing and PR initiatives,” says Barger.

Barger’s team recently launched a mobile augmented reality campaign titled, ‘Chevy iReveal.’ It was inspired by location-app games like Foursquare, one of the current location-based social networks. GM’s marketing initiative promotes a virtual treasure hunt for consumers to unlock GPS-coordinates of hidden vehicles in cities across the U.S.

When the user is in the immediate vicinity of a vehicle, the ‘virtual’ car will be revealed and appear in the real world setting. Once unlocked, it may be a Camaro in Times Square, or a Volt in front of Mann’s Chinese Theatre.

The incentive to keep using the app, is the ’surprise factor’ relating to the updates GM will be adding with each new vehicle they include in the program, as well as new functionality that will offer users the opportunity to view ‘interiors’ and hear new ’sound effects.’

The Beta version of this mobile app will debut at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival in Austin, Texas beginning March 12. GM will incorporate learnings from the Beta and enhance the application, releasing the full application in Detroit, New York and Los Angeles in April. New vehicles and new locations will be added subsequently throughout 2010. Updates will be posted to Facebook.com/Chevrolet.
The Chevy iReveal initiative is similar to an AR Ad campaign launched by Ikea in 2009, where their AR ‘Portable Interior Planner’ application gave customers the ability to see exactly how Ikea furniture could look in their homes prior to a purchase. Designed by the advertising firm of Ogilvy in partnership with the development group Mindmatic, photos of a room in one’s home taken by a smartphone merge with the app to insert the ‘un-purchased’ furniture into the room.  In this case, a clock was placed into a potential consumer’s living room.

Since AR mobile advertising is a relatively new marketing technique, there has not been a lot of tracking or analysis pertaining to ROI. Collins notes that “to track ROI on early technologies like this is simply too difficult given the early experimentation occurring - no two experiences are the same, so trying to develop standard measurements for them is less useful.”

Barger also feels calculating ROI should not necessarily be the sole objective. App downloads, vehicle awareness, positive branding, app rating reviews, user time spent on the app and positive press about the app are all important components, but these types of campaigns will pay dividends over time, as GM continues to live and engage in this new technology. “This is not a comprehensive, catch-all application for Chevrolet. It is just one (fun) way for Chevy to engage with tomorrow’s car buyers on their own turf,” he says.

In my recent article titled, “Real-Time Augmented Reality: Future or Fantasy?“ it was apparent that the AR language was still under development and at present there was no universal standard code accepted by all developers. Similar to HTML, it will probably take a number of years before a consensus is reached on ARML. However Whitfield did not see this as a hindrance for agencies and brands in using this new technology. “Advertisers should not be picking up ‘AR for Dummies’ to code an app,” she jests. “They need to hire a development shop or developers who are skilled in mobile software development with engineering degrees and expertise in the field to develop their apps and embed the code into the advertising.”

Barger believes it would be easier if “it were standardized to paint all smartphone users with the same brush.” However, with a segmented audience, it forces us to look closely at our core demographic and how to best reach them, no matter what device they are using,” he adds.

For those looking to learn more about AR in mobile advertising, Whitfield suggests attending Cellular Telecommunications Association and Mobile World Congress annual events while both Barger and Collins recommend SXSW that’s held in Austin every March.

Developers Mixed on Yahoo!’s Open Strategy

By John Greaves

Yahoo! has unveiled its Open Strategy to mixed reviews. The strategy, which is designed to fit in with Yahoo!’s commitment to make its platform more social, is meant to make it easier for developers to build. According to the Y!OS introduction on the Yahoo! Developers Network Blog, “Through YOS, we’re rewiring Yahoo! so that developers can tap into benefits once only available within Yahoo! Namely, you can leverage the content, traffic and user base of Yahoo! to extend your presence on the Web.

According to Sandeep Mundra, whose company IndiaNIC has developed for Yahoo! since 2001, although IndiaNIC is not exclusive to Yahoo! they feel they get the best deal from Yahoo! and they are open to possibilities presented by Y!OS. “It’s very exciting and from this Open Strategy we probably link different kind of models available on the Yahoo! Developer Network to not only on the Yahoo! site but other sites as well. And they’re giving the easy interface so for a developer it’s very exciting,” Mundra says.

However, other developers say they are unimpressed with Yahoo!’s moves so far. Phil Michaelson a developer whose list building and sharing product KartMe builds on Amazon, Google and eBay says Yahoo! needs to do more loosening of restrictions.

“I’d looked at using some of their APIs (e.g., search monkey and Yahoo BOSS) about a year ago. At the time, they didn’t give the end user enough control over how to display data. Now as I review the terms, they’re too restrictive. Offering APIs does not make your service open,” Michaelson says.

A quick visit to the Yahoo! Developer Network blog reveals on the one hand a lot of exciting information from Yahoo! about various innovations such as The Yahoo! Applications Platform that “represents the first time that Yahoo! is opening up the “canvas” of Yahoo! to developers, allowing developers to easily author and publish apps across the Yahoo! network,” reading responses to comments on the potential shut down of MyBlogLog shows the anger and confusion some developers feel.

The potential shutdown of MyBlogLog is not an isolated event. According to blogger MG Siegler, “At a time when many tech companies are starting to launch new projects again and excitement is building, Yahoo keeps shutting things down.”

Mundra says he is concerned over one shutdown in particular. The Shopping API is scheduled to be discontinued as of March 11, in favor of Yahoo! partnership with PriceGrabber.

“That’s a question asked by my clients because my Yahoo! clients storefronts are using 100% Yahoo!-owned shopping engines and from the shopping engines most the clients are getting very good leads. Moving that shopping engine to Price Grabber I think is a very, very hard decision so we’ll need to work very hard on that.” Many developers like IndiaNIC will be hard hit by this because unlike Yahoo! Price Grabber doesn’t offer a free web services API. The YDN advises developers “If you wish to continue to display syndicated shopping results for products listed on Yahoo! Shopping, you must apply to Price Grabber for shopping syndication services. Although they do not offer a free web services API, you can find out more about how to apply to their program here.”

One thing that may allay developers’ fears is a promise by Neal Sample, vice president of Yahoo! Open Strategy: “How we are determining which APIs we support on the Yahoo! Developer Network.” Sample also promises to give more information on progress on the Yahoo! Query Language, Yahoo! Application Platform and Social APIs.

Despite these concerns, Mundra indicates his company will stick with Yahoo! both because he believes the company’s new social focus is good for business and because he likes how the platform compares to other available outlets.

“In the last couple of years social media marketing is buzzing the market and we’re getting a lot more clients who want to integrate it into their store, so with the Open Strategy it’s going to shorten our development time.”

Still Mundra says he would like to have better communication. “Yahoo!’s support is very good but we need more support and better communication from them regarding what development is going on so we can always ready ourselves with marketing and get support ready on that. We don’t want surprises,” Mundra says.

While Yahoo! may be able to rely on the loyalty of companies such as IndiaNIC to attract developers away from competitors, Michaelson says the company has to send a signal that it is willing to make moves to allow them freedom to profit.

“Yahoo’s restrictions on data display and service monetization lead me to conclude they’re not serious about being open. If they were serious, they’d just set a cap on traffic,” Michaelson says. “No need to prevent development from sites that are trying to innovate. They should let partners innovate, and once partners are succeeding, then look to profit.”

Sample says about the Y!OS, “One thing to note today: Yahoo!’s commitment to openness is reflected in the design of recent platform releases. That is right. The truth is in the architecture. Our Open platforms (YAP, YQL, YUI, etc.) will stay and will stay open. YQL technology offers all developers an open, scalable, plug-and-play platform with the same flexibility and security we require for our own production deployment. You have the ability to wire up alternative APIs using YQL’s Open Tables. Now that’s a commitment.”

Collecta

Here’s a great way to enrich your website or blog content: embed a free widget from Collecta that provides streaming, real-time content centered on search terms that are relevant to your audience.  If you’re a developer of apps for the mobile devices, for example, you could customize the widget to search for information about iPhone and Android. What sets Collecta apart from other search offerings like Facebook’s Live Stream Box, is the depth and breadth of its content sources, which include Twitter, WordPress, Flickr, The Associated Press, CNN and Reuters.

Features:

• Free embeddable widget
• 10 million unique content sources
• Results are automatically refreshed
• Customizable search terms
• Customization options include header, control scroll rate and link to external style sheet to integrate widget with website’s existing look and feel.

View this YouTube video of Collecta search in action.

PositionApp

With over 100,000 apps available in the iTunes app store, it’s hard to keep track of who’s on first in terms of popularity. If app-watching ever gets certified as an Olympic event, you might want to spend some time training with yet another iPhone app, PositionApp. This new app from a UK/Sweden digital design studio crawls the App Store on an hourly basis and collects data from the top 300 apps across all categories and geographies. It’s a great tool if you’re consumer looking for the latest and greatest, a developer who wants to see how his latest software baby is faring in the marketplace, or a marketing type who wants to keep tabs on sales in markets across the world. The normal price of the app is $7, but it will be free for the next several months thanks to a sponsorship deal with AdMob.

Features:

• Up to date country-by-country position performance stats on the top 300 apps
• Six months of historic position data
• Browse by country, genre, position change, app name, free or paid, day, week or month
• Track selected favorites on your personal dashboard
• Highlight the biggest climbers in the top 100 and the top 300

SlideShare Branded Channels

In the world of business there’s rarely a case of TMI, unless you happen to be Toyota.  Oversharing is the rule of the road, especially when it comes to PowerPoint presentations, the lingua franca for all who toil in the trenches of commerce. SlideShare,  the world’s largest community for sharing business presentations and documents, has been a faithful business sidekick for business since 2006. You can upload  PowerPoint, Open Office and Keynote presentations  and  Word and Open Office documents. You can share them on your blog or website, or send a URL by email. Transcripts of your files will be indexed by Internet search engines and enhance the search engine ranking of your presentations and documents. Since the site is searchable by then outside world, it’s a great and inexpensive - read free - way to spread the word. Well, a good thing has just gotten better, Slideshare has launched a new Channels service to provide custom-branded micro sites that businesses can use to showcase presentations, whitepapers and webinars to a professionals audience. Some of the early adopters include Adobe, Ogilvy, Microsoft and Razorfish Marketing.

Features:

• Share PowerPoint, Open Office and Keynote presentations as well as Word and Open Office documents
• Can embed your presentation/document in a blog or website
• Has apps to share via Facebook, Linkedin and XING

See how ReadWriteWeb uses Slideshare branded channels.

Pinpointing the Future of Geo APIs

By Ron Callari

Geolocation APIs are flourishing and third-party API developers are multiplying faster than bunnies on a hot spring day. Twitter’s acquisition of Mixers Labs and GeoAPI have a lot to do with this exponential activity, but other APIs and location-based-services have been flourishing on their own paths as well.

Facebook is sitting back examining the digital landscape before making a move. Couple this with the heated smartphone explosion in the last 12 months, and you have a perfect digital storm brewing on the horizon. 2010 may be the Chinese Year of the Tiger, but it’s also the Year of the API.

It’s no longer good enough to know “what’s happening” a la Twitter circa 2006-2009 - now according to CEO Evan Williams, it’s more important to know “where it’s happening.” Noted in his “Mixing It Up at 795 Folsom St ” blog, 2010 will be the year that “the Twitter API integrates its platform with new and existing apps the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla.”

What geolocation brings to the table that has somewhat stalled the traditional social networks of Twitter and Facebook is a quicker means to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. With smartphones came cameras and GPS systems allowing for an easy and direct conduit to local advertising for shops, restaurants, bars, tourist attractions and a multitude of other businesses. In turn, APIs that open their platforms to the public can grow their reach and the diversity of that reach with newer monetization models.

So while some call geolocation one step closer to ‘improved stalking,’ others believe that there will be a paradigm shift and a more relaxed definition as to what privacy means to us in the year 2010.

Let’s take a look at today’s most shiny thing as seen through the eyes of third-party developers, CEOs and other thought-leaders in the soon-to-be-very-crowded location-based space.

Andrei Taraschuk, Founder | UMapper
The big idea behind UMapper is enabling its customers to manage the entire map life cycle from creation to monetization. With UMapper you can create, distribute, track and monetize maps. In addition, UMapper is map-agnostic framework - meaning it works with different map data providers including Bing, Google, Yahoo and OpenStreetMap.

In questioning Taraschuk as to how UMapper works with Twitter’s GeoAPI, he notes, “We used the Twitter search API with a geographic filter, which can search tweets in a specific location / radius.” Basically a simple platform to work with, “The GeoAPI implements Twitter’s search methods making it very easy for integration with Flash we used Tweetr ActionScript library.”

Users can create UMapper/Twitter maps that in turn can be embedded on their websites or Facebook pages. Others have used them to enhance blogs and news articles. “For example, if you are writing an article about a flood, you can create a Twitter map that shows people tweeting about flood in the area,” Taraschuk says.

Paul Hallett, CEO | Schmap
Hallett makes an interesting observation regarding what he calls the “geoparsing” of content shared on social networks. He points to the example of the wealth of local information that is shared in the body of tweets. “People tweet about great restaurant experiences, bands tweet about gigs, bars are tweeting about happy hours and so on,” he says.

The challenge for the app developer then comes down to filtering and deciphering. If someone tweets “Cool bash tonight at Joe’s,” has that person just returned from a private party at a friend’s house, or is there some kind of event coming up at Joe’s Bar? What is the event? Where is Joe’s Bar, and who might this information be relevant to?

According to Hallett, “there’s an epic commercial migration taking place right now at the intersection of ‘local’ and ’social’.” The same local restaurants, bars, shops (i.e. SMBs) that took 10 years to discover the Internet are now adapting to Twitter and Facebook with a much greater speed.” At Schmap.it, “we make it easier for these SMBs to reach local audiences, and help these target groups to discover vibrant, real-time local content,” affirms Hallett.

Jean-Francois Noel, CEO | 3rd Crust /SeeYourHotel.com
In working with Twitter’s API, 3rd Crust developed two apps that were both based on search/tracking to view where people wanted to go on vacations. According to Noel, “Twitter’s search API is very easy to use and the technical hurdles are minor.” The app provides location points and those points are added to tweets. However Noel feels that Twitter is somewhat limiting when compared to Google’s new social network product, Buzz. With Buzz, there is the ability to be more precise with one’s location and what is nearby. “In fact,” notes Noel, “I see this possibility as one of the best aspects for Buzz on the mobile devices and a problem for Foursquare.”

SeeYourHotel.com is a Web app designed to let you make your accommodations with ease, whether you are traveling for business or pleasure. Using the power and ease of Google Maps technology, you can now find a hotel, then view actual photos of the rooms and facilities, compare with other hotels nearby and then make your reservations all from one convenient site.

Keith Lee, CEO | Booyah & Founder of MyTown
With the location-based social network of MyTown reaching its recent milestone of one million registered users, Keith Lee sees the intersection of the real and digital worlds opening up new forms of monetization and branding opportunities with real-world tie-ins. According to Lee, “the ability to serve geo-targeted advertising and to engage consumers with brands on a local level is the holy grail for marketers. For Booyah, we now have the ability to offer branded virtual items based on proximity to real-world retail locations.”

One of the major limitations with today’s geolocation apps is “the inaccuracy of GPS at indoor environments such as malls. This is a problem since a significant number of shops in the US tend to be indoors. Moreover, it’s challenging to determine if you’re inside the store instead of just outside the store,” Lee adds.

While MyTown does not use Twitter’s GeoAPI, it does use GPS features to check-in at real-world locations to unlock virtual rewards. Players can then buy and upgrade to real-world shops, and enjoy MyTown ownership of their favorite real-life places. The more a place is frequented, the more it raises your shops’ value and rent. It’s a fully dynamic market economy and MyTown leverages the CitySearch API as its local directory to search for nearby restaurants, stores, and other points of interest.

Keith Dutton, CTO | Geodelic Systems
Dutton believes the geolocation APIs have significant potential, as they offer other dimensions that brings targeted, relevant information to users in a specific context. “However, with all the excitement of location specific information, it is important to remember that location is just one more dimension, though obviously a very important one, to relevancy,” Dutton notes. He cites as an example, using a geolocal coupon API. “While we receive a set of local coupons, to create a positive user experience, we still need to prioritize those coupons with additional analysis along traditional dimensions,” he says.

Geodelic’s app proactively shows what is likely to be of interest to a user in his local area. The app’s raw data consists of national geotagged databases, proprietary partner feeds, public partner feeds, live geolocal API calls, hand edited content, and will soon be rolling out a general public facing content publishing system. All this is run through a search engine that takes into account your personal interest profile to highlight points of interest around you. Their many data sources allow Geodelic to augment the API information, so that when an API locates a datum on a local business, it can match it to that local business and present a unified set of enriched information about it.

Dan Gilmartin | Where/Ulocate.com
Gilmartin see the location-base service market becoming more streamlined over time. “As a company that has been developing mobile location based applications since our inception in 2003, we saw early on, a developer had to have a relationship with a carrier, then pass a series of tests in order to get access to the location infrastructure. Today, developers can get access to location from device manufacturers as well as aggregators and the possibilities become endless,” he ascertains.

Where.com’s consumer value proposition is to deliver the best in class local search and discovery experience, through the aggregation of top data feeds. They combine their content into a user friendly application and based on the users’ location and context, they provide the user with distinct offers and deals from local merchants.  Ultimately their goal is to connect consumers and merchants who will have access to a network that delivers location services to users without the need to have them download an application.

Kent Lindstrom, CEO | Oogalabs.com/PlacePop
Lindstrom was the former founder and CEO of Friendster. When he became enamored with location-based social networks, he hired the head of Google Asia Pacific to run Friendster and founded OogaLabs to develop PlacePop, his initial entree’ into the LBS space. Competing head-on with the widely popular Foursquare and Gowalla, Lindstrom’s vision is predicated on providing users with a “dead-simple app” that reduces the mobile location experience to its essence, “much like Facebook did compared to MySpace,” he says.

While he is not yet working with Twitter’s GeoAPI nor does PlacePop have it own API, he finds the development of geolocation an arduous challenge - but one that PlacePop is up for. “For example just to do a “check-in,” it requires multiple systems to work in tandem; namely:  GPS, the phone network itself, the app, a geolocation database, then that all has to be sent back to the phone, in just a few seconds,” Lindstrom notes.

When asking Lindstrom as to how he will differentiate PlacePop from the likes of Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite and MyTown who all gained a foothold in the market last year, he sees it as such: “In my experience, the first movers rarely end up winning, because of the enormous burden of pioneering. Lycos, Powells.com and even his own former company Friendster were all eventually exceeded by the likes of Google, Amazon and Facebook.”

Zak Tanjeloff, Founder | Brring.com & NearToHere
Tanjeloff has not worked with Twitter’s GeoAPI. His alert service called NearToHere has been developed on the Wikipedia API. The challenges he sites in developing geolocation apps points to the “inability for iPhone apps to run in the background - meaning that unless our apps are running, we do not have access to geolocation data, and therefore, cannot deliver relevant content all the time,” he cautions. However he is very enthusiastic about embracing the enormous possibilities of geolocation apps. “With the availability of tremendous APIs to small developers like myself, we are able to build products, seemingly once only available for James Bond, in a quick, efficient, and most importantly, inexpensive manner.”

In considering collaboration with other location-based social network Tanjeloff says, “we are going to continue to layer more content into NearToHere to make it a more robust experience for the user.” Since we are a travel guide, in addition to Wikipedia content, we will next be layering in Yelp’s geolocated content to provide reviews of local business to users as they pass them.”

Tim Napoleon, Co-Founder/President | AllDigital, Inc.
AllDigital offers software and online services that enables the secure transport of digital content to IP-enabled devices including mobile computing devices, the desktop computer, and digital televisions.

In discussing geolocation challenges with Napoleon, he firmly believes that “The biggest issue with GEO data is end user perception. It needs to be really clear how this data is being used or the industry risks consumers disabling the feature,” he says. He sees the ubiquitous nature of geo-information affecting almost every Web page or application we use. “The widest use case is ‘ad targeting’ and ‘right restriction on Premium Content’,” notes Napoleon, where, “the granularity of mobile data is really providing media companies with new ways of pin-pointing users.”

As with so many early-stage social network platforms, extending the service with secondary applications is what makes the functionality truly useful. GeoAPI and the other geolocation APIs mentioned by our experts is a work in progress and as all have indicated, there is a lot more work that needs to be done. With Twitter and Facebook holding their developers conferences two weeks apart in April, I am sure the momentum for API development will kick into high gear shortly thereafter.

As to what major platform will lead the ‘geolocation’ charge by year-end, Booyah’s Keith Lee seems to think if “Facebook decided to incorporate a check-in process into their own API, it will have the capability of destroying all other check-in functionality (found in the majority of location-based social networks) because no one will be able to compete with their 400M+ social graph.” Others think Twitter and their acquisition of Mixer Labs’ GeoAPI will be the major catalyst to give them a leg-up in the geolocation universe.

With success comes consolidation. Potentially some or all the API development firms mentioned here may eventually be absorbed. Schmap’s Hallett is actually planning for that end-game as part of his exit strategy. He believes it’s extremely important that the smaller players like his company Schmap need to “establish defensible positions” to prepare for that outcome. He argues, “My point here is that when a smaller location-service player fails to establish a defensible position (erects little in the way of competitive barriers), then the big guys don’t need to acquire, they can just compete and squash it.”  However, “If the position is defensible, because the smaller player has built up a large enough base of loyal clients/users, or because it has certain key elements to its rollout that would prove difficult or time-consuming to replicate, then an acquisition makes more sense.”
The Year of the API may be a long-winding road as a result of geolocation being part of the mix.

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