When it comes to online marketing, location is the big topic so far this year. The popular choices in this space include: Foursquare, Gowalla, Twitter, Facebook and Google.
Google currently has a third of its searches via mobile web with some part of the search engine’s local environment that the company feels that location is a “hugely important signal”.
Smartphone usage is growing quickly and users are learning that there are more options to find what they’re looking for when it comes to locations. Rate it All President Lawrence Coburn said that consumer location-sharing is quickly becoming a new kind of search.
MapQuest doesn’t get the kind of attention its competitors do, but it’s still driving traffic as a new search engine. MapQuest is still staying relevant and because of this, that relevance may be on its way up. “We’re one of the most downloaded applications on the iPhone, despite the fact that other options are built in,” said MapQuest’s David Cole.