location

BrightKite for iPhone.

Jud Valeski

25 Oct 2008 • 3 min read

The fact it took

BrightKite

and

Loopt

as long as it did to distribute their iPhone apps must be some indication as to how niche the market continues to be. That's a bummer because location is going to be the next axis upon which the web tilts. GPS devices in rental cars are the first sign of more of the general population being exposed to apps that do cool things with

latitude

, longitude (and eventually altitude). However, we're still a long way away from "mainstream"

geocoding

devices/applications.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I blogged about Loopt's iPhone app; I'm very impressed with

Loopt's

implicit take on my location, layered with my personal description of my location (sort of akin to

BrightKite's

placemark

"), it's a model that better fits in my brain. Tried as I did to suck my

BrightKite

friends into

Loopt

, I couldn't. I'd say 10% of the folks I invited are still using

Loopt

today. 60% of them like

BrightKite's

iPhone/app model better, and the remaining 40% were friends I was trying to introduce to mobile/location apps on their

iPhones

, and they're simply not interested (or just had an allergic reaction to

Loopt

BrightKite for iPhone

BrightKite's

got some

hurdles to get over. If you're wondering what the first two buttons you see do, checkout this description. Even my friends who were telling me how great BK was couldn't tell me what those buttons did. I still don't know what all the little "lock" icons on the screens mean. Those are all usability/first-version issues that are easily fixed; which is a good thing.

What I struggle with in general with

BrightKite

is it's take on "checking in." They've catered to those who want explicit,

delineated

, boundaries around sharing their location with others. That's my primary gripe with

BrightKite

for iPhone; I want an app that just "checks me in" implicitly (maximum one button click). That said, with

geo

-location in particular, most users do indeed want explicit control over sharing their location. I'm an

aberration

in this respect, and I know that.

Implicit & Explicit

The issue of whether to actually share one's location implicitly or explicitly aside (the case can easily be made for that to be an explicit operation),

BrightKite's

other features need to become implicit.

A toggle for auto "Find me" goes too far in trying to comfort the user. The

raison

d'etre

for the app is to "find me" and because I have to explicitly share my location, just go ahead and "

find me

." I'll decide whether or not I want to have my location shared. Exposing this as a top-level

element adds clutter and confusion to the experience. Bury this down in settings/preferences if users really want the option to turn it on/off.

I like the "snap to" concept, but again, to me that's just something that should "just work" and not be an explicit toggle that I can turn on/off. If you're trying to pinpoint me, and you have an idea of where I am, just use that idea. If I have to manually correct it, I will. Obviously use my

placemarks

as the first order match (which

BrightKite

confirmed they're doing already), but the relationship between "pick a place" (in the iPhone app) and "

placemarks

" (on the website) is unclear.

Proprietary messaging in apps today, particularly phones, is extraneous. Just direct

SMS

in the future please; no need to reinvent this wheel.

Where's the map? A social application based on

geo

-location screams for the primary

metaphor to be map driven.

In conclusion...

All in all, the top half of the default screen of the

BrightKite

app, the "I am..." section, should just go away. All of that can be implicitly

derived

, either based on my past experiences (e.g. check-ins), or via matching on the

backend

. I think

Loopt

has nailed the

metaphors and the right level of location/sharing abstraction. I think

BrightKite

is providing lots of privacy-level/visibility and control. Undoubtedly users are asking for that control, but privacy can be a

rat hole

and I'd be careful building an app around giving the user everything they want on this topic.

Loopt's

taking some risks in this regard, but I think they're the right risks. Ultimately the end-user will decide.

For now, I'm using both services, and I suspect I'll have to leave

Loopt

in the ditch pretty soon because most of my friends are using

BrightKite

. These are social applications and their usefulness is primarily driven by how many of your friends are using them. I'm just stoked that there's competition in this space. Amazing things will come from location enabled applications.

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