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Tag: Twitter Places

  • Twitter Should Be Getting More Useful at the Geographical Level

    Twitter is making it easier for developers to tap into Places data, which should fuel more interesting functionalities around locations in a lot of apps.

    In a Twitter API Announcements Google Groups thread, Twitter Developer Advocate Matt Harris said the company’s been working with partners like &E Television Networks and History, Apontador, CityGrid Media, DotMenu/Allmenus, Gowalla, Infogroup, Localeze, Maponics, OpenTable, TomTom, Wcities, Yellow Pages Group (Canada), and Zagat to grow its data set of places. 

    "These partnerships serve as a foundation for a number of exciting features we have planned to help users find what’s new in their area and around the world," says Harris. "To make it easy for you to use the large data set, we’re using an index that combines the IDs across different partners into one. This means you can use the IDs from your preferred partner’s dataset when using Twitter Search to find Tweets about a specific place."

    Twitter launched Twitter Places back in the summer on Twitter.com and mobile.twitter.com. The feature lets you tag tweets with specific places by sharing location. However, the partnerships mentioned above should be a much more helpful for developers in bringing a very wide range of place information to developers to build from. The possibilities would seem to be about endless for what developers can do from there. 

    Twitter Places

    You can expect location-based apps to bring a lot of new and interesting things to the table in the coming year, and this should help any of them take advantage of relevant Twitter information. 

    Beyond the Foursquares, Gowallas, and all of these things, it would not be surprising to see search engines like Google and Bing taking advantage. Just today, Google’s Marissa Mayer discussed the company’s direction in local, and an increased focus on "contextual discovery" and "pushing" data to users before they search for it. Pushing relevant geographical tweets could be one conceivable instance. 

    Think going to a business’ Place Page on Google and seeing tweets from people who have checked into that location, for example. 

    Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley has been expressing a similar vision to what Mayer was talking about – using the location technology to serve different kinds of relevant information – something that makes the service worth using beyond just checking in for points or badges. These are the kinds of things that will distinguish location-based services from one another – why some will succeed and others will fail, and why some of them will be able to co-exist. It’s all about what they offer, and we’ve barely scratched the surface on that I believe. Mayer mentioned going to a restaurant and Google serving you the menu, possibly with some added social relevance based on your own personal connections. 

    Twitter is a treasure trove of information  – news, opinions, and observations. At the geographical level tweets can often be more useful – contextual. Like Twitter’s outgoing VP of Product, Jason Goldman said: there’s still a lot of room in the Twitter ecosystem for "interesting innovations in relevance."

    Plus, as Harris said, Twitter has its own "exciting features" planned.

     

  • Twitter Places Includes Integration with Foursquare, Gowalla

    Twitter announced that Twitter Places is now available on Twitter.com and mobile.twiter.com. This is a feature that lets you tag tweets with specific places by sharing your location.

    Some users had access to location-sharing features back in March, but it appears that it is being rolled out on a massive scale now. Over the next week, Twitter will launch Twitter Places in 65 countries. The company is also working on brining the feature to its mobile apps for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry.

    "If you’re like everyone at the Twitter office, you’re going crazy about the World Cup," says Twitter’s Othman Laraki. "When turning to Twitter to keep up with the current game, it helps to know where a Tweet is coming from—is that person watching the game on TV or is he actually in the stadium?"

    Twitter Places

    Twitter Places comes with Foursquare and Gowalla integration, which automatically gives these two services an advantage over competitors in the "check-in" space.

    "Many Foursquare and Gowalla users publish check-ins to Twitter," says Laraki. "Location is a key component of these Tweets, so we worked closely with both companies to associate a Twitter Place with Tweets generated by these services. This means that if you click on a Twitter Place, such as ‘Ritual Roasters,’ you will see standard Tweets and check-ins from Foursquare and Gowalla."

    Twitter is also releasing API functionality for Twitter Places, so developers can integrate Twitter Places into their apps. In addition, you can add location to your tweets from any browser.