Quarterly Location Business News
Here are the most interesting or important articles from the Web, according to Location SmartBrief readers:
LOCATION ECOSYSTEM
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency will create a platform for intelligence analysts to immediately access all of the agency’s data and examine multiple layers of information about a single geospatial point at a time, said agency director Letitia Long at the GEOINT Symposium. The platform, called Map of the World, will also integrate other information such as social media and other data to form a more complete intelligence picture. “In the past, you had to access multiple databases and search by hand for hours, sometimes even days, to find our information. That doesn’t cut it in our rapidly changing world,” Long said. http://bit.ly/PMVK5D
The market for location-based services in North America will reach nearly $4 billion by 2018, according to Berg Insight. Mobile location services are projected to grow at a compound interest rate of 16.1% per year, fueled primarily by advertising. Berg Insight’s Andre Malm said, “Revenues are far from evenly distributed as major players including Facebook and Google with broad audiences have attracted the majority of ad spend.” http://bit.ly/1frVViN
INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS
A study of location data for alcohol-related tweets shows patterns of booze consumption around the U.S. in this set of maps. Wine appears to be more popular on the coasts, while beer is popular in the Midwest and parts of the South. http://bit.ly/S4yRN2
Marine biologists have successfully tracked a female great white shark across the Atlantic Ocean using a tracking device that transmits location data every time the shark’s dorsal fin rises above the surface of the water. http://bit.ly/1h8OIiV
3. USGS seeks to create LiDAR-based map of U.S. elevations 03/05/2014
The U.S. Geological Survey is collecting high-resolution elevation data for the country as part of a project to create baseline 3D maps for a range of uses including monitoring forest biomass and crop health. http://bit.ly/1rzDxVj
BUSINESS AND STRATEGY PLANNING
The U.S. is headed for a boom in technology that uses location context to enhance real-life experiences, said panelists and presenters at the Street Fight Local Data Summit. In particular, location data is poised to see growth in indoor technologies as indoor positioning systems such as Apple’s iBeacon continue to improve. On the search front, companies such as Goodzer, Retailigence may use their inventory-tracking technologies to create local comparison shopping or delivery services, Damian Rollison writes. http://bit.ly/1rzDxVj
3. The growing role of location data in retail 03/12/2014
Retailers are using location information to analyze diverse areas of their businesses, including how to improve store design to maximize sales, how to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and how to improve operations, writes Tony Costa. Businesses will also increasingly use location data to provide discounts and preferential status to customers based on their behaviors. “Just as Web analytics is an essential tool on the Web, location analytics will become a must-have for designing, managing, and measuring offline experiences,” Costa writes. http://bit.ly/1h8OIiV
