I saw Mojeo presented at the Mobile 2.0 Event in San Francisco Monday as part of a Launchpad presentation spotlighting new services. I wasn’t too impressed with the presentation which was brief and lacking in details, but I did jot down “mojeo.mobi,…

It’s really interesting. I had the opportunity to meet with them at the last GSM world congress in Barcelona. Pretty cool.
Julian

more about some of my favorite LBS apps (and why I think it’s too early in the game to hate on mobile TV) at twofones:
http://twofones.typepad.com/twofones/2006/10/it_aint_where_y.html

- g

The way it works is, you open the browser and it finds your nearest public transport (it’s fairly and reliably accurate), you select your station/stop, and continue with the journey planner app.

It’s good because:

1/ You don’t have to type your location into your phone. This alone makes it useful and means I use it even when I know where I am.

2/ Even though I live in London and mostly know where I am, sometimes I don’t. It’s a big place.

3/ It shows how good it can be when a network works togeher with an application specialist. (Obvioulsy, Orange does not have intimate knowledge of London Transport System and timetables)

Not sure if other networks in the UK have this, but I’m always surprised more people don’t rave about it — maybe I should get a life

Whenever I show it to people, they’re always like “Uh, i never knew you could do that.”

Of all the mobile/wireless developers I’ve met this past year, location is the thing that gets them most excited (large & small companies). Most of the demos I’ve seen at large comanies are NDA, but have a look at Jaiku (http://www.jaiku.com/)

I ran into these guys at the Symbian show this week. They can approximate the location of a handset through knowldge of the GSM network timing to a kilometer or so radius, without the carrier being involved (or knowing anything about it).

On top of this they layer context and presence to create, well, a social-networking app.

The problem I see is getting any kind of momentum (i.e. enough of your buddies to use it) behind this kind of thing.

-gabe

I do think that a nearest restaurant/bar guide is a little different - in major cities, it could be as useful for residents and visitors alike. But I think it needs a big injection of User Generated Content to really take off and be useful.

But I think the real key for take up will be when we can use the phone as a virtual mouse to connect the real world with the digital.

Russell

LBS is great. Just thought I’d get that is first.
However most of the services to date have been a “locate me, and tell where an XYZ is” eg find an ATM.
I believe teh failure of these is because most people spend most of their time in an area they know. Therefore it is relatively rare to find oneself in a “strange” location, and then want to discover a local XYZ. Thus the association between your phone and searching for real world things is not made by teh consumer, and when they are stuck, they turn to more traditional methods.

So i believe that these services will not take off until other LBS services create teh association of phone and location.

Steve

Reno - in fairness, I can’t possible mention everyone in this space every time I mention LBS. Yes, I did some consulting for Loopt and when I mentioned them originally I made this clear and I linked back to that post here. Besides which I don’t know every player in the space and can’t really be expected to.

But I am happy to feature anyone else doing anything interesting in mobile and LBS if they let me know about what they’re up to, I think they’re interesting and/or if I come across them elsewhere.

Russell

- Video treating (home-made erotic videos as e-gifts to lovers)
- Cab driver protection (video the cab driver and send to mates for extra security)
- Video gloating (showing off: tricks, purchases, girlfriends)