Location-Based Service That Actually Serves
Usually my comment bin is just spam message after spam message … but I welcome real comments and I’m glad I took the time to read the messages after my last business trip. Here’s the message:
Hi Dave and Carmita,
I am a software developer who has recently released a location-aware reminder application that you might be interested in. It’s available for the Blackberry 7520, and it’s currently freely available at http://www.naggie.com.The idea is simple: you get reminders depending on where you are. Suppose you pull into the driveway and you’re low on gas. You tell your Naggie “Remind me to get gas the next time I leave the houseâ€. Or you’re running out of milk and you tell Naggie “Remind me to get milk the next time I’m near the grocery store.â€
If you’ve got a Blackberry 7520, feel free to give it a whirl.
Thanks for your time,
Andrew
Naggie, LLC
If you follow GPS, GIS, wireless services or Web 2.0 issues at all you’ve probably heard about LBS …Location Based Services. Several years ago Jack Dangermond, the “daddy rabbit” of ESRI, the king of GIS software made a lot of noise about the “Power Of Place” or how location-based services were going to become really big. So far, they haven’t. That’s because most of the LBS business ideas I’ve seen are nothing but spam in a new format … send a message to a driver’s cell phone to tell him he’s approaching a McDonald’s with special deals on hamburgers, and various other … you should excuse the expression, but there is none other that fits … _Bullshit_ annoyances like that. Hello, Madison Avenue with lat long enabled, I knew how to buy a McDonald’s fried grease burger 40 years ago, when they cost 15 cents. The grease is the same, the golden arches are the same and I don’t need GPS or wirelesses technology to help me get even fatter.
But what I do need now that 15 cent burgers and my hair are both a distant, fading memory is something to help what’s left of my memory survive. I don’t know if I like the Naggie name, but I love the idea behind it. Just now, for example, I can think of half a dozen things I need from various stores around town … things I am not going to drive across the city for, but things in stores that I’ll undoubtedly be passing later this week, on the weekend, whatever. With Naggie I can just note the need and I can be reminded via BlackBerry when I’m close to one of the stores. Cute. And efficient … helps cure dependence on OPEC and other nasty American habits.
The principle is very sound. As humans we always need “memory joggers” to remind of of an item we need to remember and (sometimes) a time to remember it … like be in the boss’ staff meeting tomorrow morning at 9. We have a thousand and one devices, everything from Outlook to a rubber band on our finger to do that. But what of the things to remember that aren’t time dependent, but place dependent instead. Very neat concept.
At present, Naggie is only for the Blackberry 7520, and since I don’t have one of these devices I can’t give you a user report, but if you do, go to Naggie.com and check it out (and please let me know your thoughts on the application).