Late last week, Mashable writer Samuel Axon observed that Google Maps is now making recommendations based on the places users are searching. This could potentially be useful if the restaurant you are meeting at has a special event and you can’t get in. Or you’re just ready to look for somewhere new in the neighborhood. But Axon isn’t all that excited that it’s Google bringing the service to the market first.
Google has beaten location-focused services like Foursquare to the punch with this. That’s too bad, because we imagine Foursquare could in theory use your check-in history to provide much better suggestions just like Netflix suggests films based on which movies you’ve already rented or streamed and how you’ve rated them. It’s not surprising that Google did it first, though; Google has a lot more experience using algorithms to determine what you’re looking for than Yelp or Foursquare do.
With Apple potentially clamping down on location-based advertising on the iPhone, and Goliath Google innovating faster than scrappy (and well-funded) startups, this space will get less interesting instead of more. But until I can become the mayor of even a tiny slice of the Googlesphere, I’m still “checked-in” to see what’s next.
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