LBS Needs Trust

For over a decade the communications industry has been waxing poetic about the potential for location based services or LBS to change the world. The idea was mobile commerce would be unleashed as coupons would be flashed in front of users as they walked near a coffee shop or fast food restaurant.

That future is here to a certain degree but the one missing ingredient is trust. You see users more than likely want curated offers. If you have ever advertised on Google you know the company makes you jump through hoops to post an ad. They even correct and guide your punctuation use before your ad can be displayed on their pages or as part of their network.

Users may not understand exactly why but they likely understand the ads on Google’s pages are more trustworthy than other sites with limited curation.

Tom Simonite at MIT’s Technology Review shares his thoughts about how Apple and Google are using AI to pop up information related to your surroundings as you travel with your smartphone. This is the first step in providing users with offers related to their location.

It remains to be seen if Amazon gets in the game but chances are they too will provide a service which alerts you to items in their warehouses which are similar to the ones you are perusing at your local brick and mortar establishment.

Google became a money-making machine once users started to trust the company’s results were objective and accurate and subsequently showing targeted advertisements. Likewise, once Google and Apple gain users trust in the location game, they will have the ability to monetize the experience by presenting trusted offers.

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