Image by niallkennedy via Flickr
The technology available today is phenomenal. With a few clicks of the mouse you have access to all the information you need to organize your daily life.
Picture this scenario. It’s Saturday night, you and your family are wondering where you should go out for a nice family meal. You hop onto the family computer and type in restaurants around your local area into a search engine. The search engine may retrieve a listing of restaurant websites, along with a map, and recommendations pinpointed on it. This map with recommendations is what is referred to as a location based service.
Location based services (LBS) are able to geographically place things onto a map with which a user can interact with. Some of the services which use LBS include the following.
- Health professionals such as general practitioners, dentists and pediatricians
- Entertainment locations such as movie theatres, concert venues and theatres
- Parcel tracking services
- Social event recommendations
- ATM locations
- Location based advertising
- Intricate navigational directions
- Up to date reviews of local amenities, including restaurants
LBS can take the form of advertising and coupon offers that appear on the side bar of search engine results. So not only can you search for a great place to have a nice family dinner, but you can also see a review of the restaurant and maybe pick up a coupon in the process.
The best thing about this technology is that you can utilize it whilst you are on the go, making it a very useful aspect of technology today.
