Chris Messina wrote a fantastic article describing the inevitable future that’s ahead of us for location based services. I posted some thoughts on the topic in his comments, and I decided, while link-loving his blog, I’d reproduce my comments here:

There are three aspects I would add to your thoughts on location. Even when the location layer becomes ubiquitous, we’ll still have to think in terms of specificity, frequency, and context. Different methods of updating and privacy settings can mean location as specific as GPS or as general as a zip code, which may or may not be useful depending on the consuming service. We’re constantly moving, so frequency of updates determine the social usefulness of location data. Also, if location sharing becomes more ubiquitous and automated, it will probably be in the form of GPS or cell tower information along the lines of the iPhone’s “Locate Me” feature. This is great for certain kinds of location sharing, but horrible for contextual information like “in conference room A” or “Ted’s pub.” Mapping GPS->venue will be a big deal.

This leads me to my worries about the location layer.

I foresee applications that allow users to tag their GPS locations with venue data, but store that data in a closed way so that the company owning the app can claim it as IP.
I really want to see the location layer implemented correctly before we go too crazy with services. That will require more thought and lots of openness+standards. We need more apps like Fire Eagle that take privacy seriously and offer users robust control of their data. If companies like Facebook try to claim your location history is their property the way they claim your contact list is their property…well, I don’t even need to explain how bad that would be for everyone.