It’s that time of year for us digital geeks – where we all embark on the great city of Austin, Texas to enjoy the festivities of SXSW Interactive (SXSWi). While I have to pass this year (wah!), I know the Twitter world we keep me a-buzzed to all of the happenings. One of the MANY things I heart about SXSWi, is the “first to know feeling” as you learn the latest and greatest before it hits the mainstream.
A few years ago, I recall the rage of this thing called Twitter. It was all the buzz. This year, rumors are circulating about the new-new thing being the location-based apps.
"What are these location-based apps you speak of?" you ask…
- GoWalla
- Foursquare
- Plancast
- Whrrl (which isn’t mentioned but has recently added this element into their circle)
Three years ago, Twitter famously was the talk of the conference (it won the web award that year). While sure, it didn’t explode into mainstream popularity until sometime later, the writing was on the wall for the early-adopters who started using it there or shortly thereafter. Two years ago, it was arguably Twitter again that was the must-use service throughout the conference as it continued to mature. But last year saw some new entries rise. Both Foursquare and Gowalla launched at the conference, with Foursquare gaining much of the momentum coming out of the conference (as some of us predicted
). And this year, I suspect it will be largely an extension of that, with location services in general being the talk of the show.
Read more about what’s predicted for the future of these with this post over on TechCrunch.
If you’re headed to SXSWi – enjoy the event, the great city of Austin and hit up Momoko’s coconut milk bubble tea for me!
