Why the idea of geolocation seems unstoppable

Geolocation is the new marketing, or at least it is for those of us with customers comfortable about revealing their location. It may sound slightly Orwellian, but "checking in", the practice of logging your arrival at a particular destination on a mobile device so that others can find you, is growing in popularity.

The idea isn't all that new. Service providers have traditionally helped site owners to serve international Web visitors with information in their own language by linking each unique IP address to a specific location. That way, Brazilian visitors to amazon.com are able to see a Portuguese-language website with links to products shipped from Brazil.

The idea that location is set to be 2010's app of choice is largely down to the popularity of social networking start-ups such as Foursquare and Gowalla, which encourage users to check in at shops, bars and restaurants, allowing frequent visits to be exchanged for prizes and vouchers. Privacy watchers are naturally concerned.

Ultimately, larger social media players will decide geolocation's fate. Google launched Buzz earlier this year. Facebook was due to unveil a rival service last month while Twitter's app tags tweets with the user's location. The idea for less privacy-conscious users, says Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, is to add an "additional layer of context" to help provide "a richer information network". Marketers will be watching with interest.