Loopt. Loopt (loopt) Sam Altman (sama) Loopt To Start Pushing Check-In Specials Hard Using A New App An. When Loopt released its iPhone app alongside the App Store launch in 2008, it seemed to have everything going for it. Founder Sam Altman was given time on stage at WWDC to show off the app. It was featured prominently in the App Store for a while. And it was really one of the first hot location-based services.
But then it cooled off, partially because the app needed to be open to update your location. And since the iPhone didn’t allow for third-party applications to run in the background, it was severely hamstrung. Meanwhile, a series of check-in based location apps that didn’t need to be open all the time came along and stole the location buzz. As you can see in the deck we’ve obtained below, Loopt is working on yet another new product that is all about location-based deals. So why is it any different than what Foursquare, Gowalla, and most recently, Yelp, are doing with location-based deals?
Loopt has tried to rebuild itself before. Loopt Star Keeps It Simple: Check-Ins, Specials, And Facebook. Back in January, we noted that Loopt was sending around a deck to advertisers showing off a new product. The product was focused on check-in specials (the kind popularized by Foursquare) and was entirely built on top of Facebook’s social graph. Finally, nearly 6 months later, that app is here. Loopt Star is in some ways a simplified version of Loopt’s regular location-based service. Rather than being a service that is continually updating your location in the background, the focus here is only on the idea of the check-in.
And naturally, those check-ins take place at specific venues — some of which Loopt has deals in place with to coincide with the launch of the new app. We’re talking big, national brands such as Gap, Burger King, and Universal Music. Loopt Star is sort of like a “virtual loyalty card,” is the way co-founder Sam Altman describes it. The way Loopt pitched it to advertisers is interesting. Update: And below, find a video Robert Scoble took of Altman showing off Loopt Star. Scobleizer Looptstar. Turning Consumer Loyalty Into a Cellphone Game. Pluto's Fresh Food - Palo Alto, CA. Loopt Into Yelp’s Territory With New Local Reviews Site. Before there was Gowalla or Foursquare, there was location-based social network Loopt. Launched in 2006, Loopt was one of the pioneers of the location-based mobile social network. And Loopt has gained a huge number of users of its mobile apps; the social network currently has 3 million mobile users, 1 million of which are on the iPhone.
Compared to Foursquare and Gowalla, which have 150,000 and 50,000 users respectively, Loopt has a pretty significant user base. More recently, Loopt upgraded its mobile offerings to offer a check-in where you can also review a place and help recommend things for your friends to do, called Pulse. The mobile feature aggregates data on all of these “check-in spots,” which include, bars, restaurants, and more. It’s kind of like a local search engine. Now Loopt is venturing into Yelp’s territory (even as rumors swirl about Yelp) by making these local reviews available on the web. Loopt To Start Pushing Check-In Specials Hard Using A New App An. Loopt and Mobile Spinach Team Up for Location-Based Deals. Location-based service Loopt is going to offer deals at venues and stores near you thanks to a partnership with Mobile Spinach .
Mobile Spinach has already built up a large database of exclusive deals at venues ranging from sushi restaurants to concert halls to clothing stores. Currently, it serves San Francisco by texting users with deal notifications, but the partnership with Loopt will make the process that much more effective. Loopt and Mobile Spinach plan to offer deals in New York and Los Angeles “during the coming months,” too. This advertising model is kind of a no-brainer.
A neighborhood business can use a service like Loopt to target someone who lives or works nearby and offer him or her incentives to visit an establishment. These offers can be redeemed by phone or optionally via e-mail or text message. Foursquare already struck a deal with 8coupons , which does something very similar to what Mobile Spinach does. Loopt Adds Another Content Partner; Integrates Local Foodie News. As Foursquare makes deals with major media companies, competitor Loopt is continuing to partner with with content companies to offer fresh news and reviews of restaurants, bars, businesses and events. Loopt’s mobile apps incorporates local content, deals and reviews about restaurants, bars and events from Zagat, Citysearch, Bing, and most recently Mobile Spinach. Today, Loopt is announcing a partnership with Tasting Table, daily epicurean email about restaurants, bars, wine stores and cookshops in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington D.C.
Loopt users can find Tasting Table-approved restaurants and bars within Loopt Pulse on Loopt’s free mobile application. Tasting Table recommendations range from directions, menus, editorial insights, special offers, and more. With 3 million users, Loopt is continuing to innovate its platform to compete in a competitive space, where Facebook may be entering as well. Looptstar. WSJ video. Location History KML-file. Loopt has now launched Location History settings — a way for you to download and save your personal Loopt location history into a KML file*. Your personal location history includes both your “check in”/share locations with Loopt, and all the tracking points in between that Loopt has saved in the background. Loopt Location History works on all models of phone supported by Loopt. Why do this? Your KML file can be used by Google Earth , for example, to create some cool visual mashups of trips you take, for example.
You might want add geo-tagged photos to your mashups. Is it private? Totally! To turn on Location History, do the following: Log into your account on Loopt.com here: Check on the agreement, and click on Save It to start saving your history. To download your Location History, do the following: Go back to settings (see above). To clear your Location History, do the following: Go back to settings (see above). Loopt Now Lets You Download Your Location History.
Geolocation service Loopt has just launched a feature that lets you access the last 30 days of your location history as a downloadable KML file. KML, which was developed for Google Earth, is a file that includes data associated with your location that can then be used when creating more interactive maps or trip logs. The feature is especially useful if you have background location, a new feature of Loopt 3.0 for iOS 4 [iTunes link].Background location sharing, which is enabled via the new multitasking features in iOS 4, allows users to automatically keep track of their location changes so that they do not have to constantly check in or update their status messages. You can customize who you want to share your location with (if you want to share it at all) and how often your location is updated and monitored. The really cool part of background location is that you can also get alerts if people you know (and who are sharing their info with you) are nearby.
Met Loopt nu locatie geschiedenis downloaden. De geo-location service Loopt heeft een nieuwe feature gelanceerd die je de mogelijkheid geeft om de laatste 30 dagen van jouw locatie historie te downloaden als KML file. Dat hebben ze op hun blog bekend gemaakt. KML, in eerste instantie ontwikkeld voor Google Earth, is een bestand dat data bevat die geassocieerd is met jouw locatie en die gebruikt kan worden bij het maken van wat meer interactieve kaarten of reislogbestanden. Deze functie is erg handig als je gebruik maakt van background location, a nieuwe functie van Loopt 3.0 voor iOS 4 [iTunes link]. Background location sharing, dat wordt ingeschakeld met de nieuwe multi-tasking functies in iOS 4, stelt gebruikers in staat om automatisch hun locatie veranderingen bij te houden zonder dat ze voortdurend in hoeven te checken of status updates te versturen.
Met wie je jouw locatie wil delen en hoe vaak deze wordt geactualiseerd en gecontroleerd is allemaal in te stellen. Jeroen de Hooge. Geo-Loco Conference. Bancroft Research (Geoloco2010)