Twitter: twaddle or the future of location based services?

TWITTER co-founder, Biz Stone, yesterday revealed on his blog that the micro-blogging social networking site will be adopting geolocation services.

The move could see Twitter mature into a much more plausible information service as users make contacts aware of their whereabouts and can use it to be advised on availability of amenities in the immediate environs

Third-party apps will be the first to have access to the feature, however, Stone also says that support for location on Twitter’s mobile and regular site will be launched too. The feature will be opt-in, but the potential is huge given Twitter’s considerable user base and also the fact that there are no shortage of location-based services being launched and many 3^rd part developers who would jump at the opportunity to ‘piggy-back’ an existing and popular platform.

The move is timely, with Facebook expected to launch a location based element - especially as Facebook’s primary purpose is to be a social network where people keep track of friends.

Twitter has been labelled recently as the older person’s social media site (a Morgan Stanley study suggested that teens don’t tweet) and in addition, there has been negative publicity around research which suggested that 40 per cent of Twitter tweets are “Pointless Babble.” This came from a study from Pear Analytics, a data provider that recently examined 2,000 tweets over a two-week period, breaking them down into six categories. Perhaps location will be the crucial element that sees Twitter mature whilst simultaneously capturing the lucrative youth market.

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