Justin posted the other day about social objects, particular aspects of us (pictures, bookmarks, status, etc…) that can be shared with other people. I was going to write a post about how my “killer” social object would be location. I ended up scrapping it, but given Yahoo’s announcement of FireEagle, a platform for personal geographic information. This looks absolutely amazing, and while there are some similar existing services, Yahoo’s approach to it is remarkable.
Thoughts…

  • It’s built as a platform. After seeing what has happened with the generic social networking sites opening themselves up to any third party developer, it’s become increasingly apparent that building “platforms” is a great tactic for building a site. See what can be done with your content. Let developers scratch their own itch.
  • Cool ideas: walking around and seeing on my phone what Flickr images were taken near me. Knowing what friends (Facebook/MySpace/Ning) are near where I am. A “killer” e-commerce tool would be walking into a store, and automatically seeing coupons and specials (maybe for a competitor as well!).
  • Privacy is a huge issue that has to be dealt with. While I want my friends and some associates knowing where I am, you can’t allow anyone to see where you are. Imagine what would happen if entrepreneurs could always find out where Fred Wilson was, or journalists could see whose offices the founder of the latest shiny social object was at?
  • Data collection is crucial. While most current “things” being shared on the internet are a result of a direct action by the user (taking a picture, doing something), location is a physical state. In order for the system to work, data collection has to be automatic, and done without user interaction.
  • Therefore, I need to buy a phone with GPS built in. The iPhone, while definitely a cool gadget, could have been revolutionary if it became the first phone with GPS that had widespread adoption.