Location in 2011: Does knowing ‘where’ help inform where you are going?

We think so. As 2011 gets off to a super-charged start, the Quova staff is reflecting on what is ahead.

We may not have a crystal ball, but we’re close. We see opportunities for people who discover the power of location, such as developers not just of apps, but of all Web technologies. In 2010, location came into its own, both empirically and applied to existing technologies. Quova added new customers including marketing agencies, consumer brands and social networks.

2010 was the year location took center stage. Even though WE have been up to our eyeballs in IP geolocation data for ten years, it seemed like the world woke up to the power of location, overnight. Through the advent of services like Foursquare and Facebook places, a user’s specific location is registered in real-time in the larger social graph. While that is a novel advancement, we see this as a significant sign that finally, people understand the importance of localizing content that is geared to a user’s experience on the web. (Which is where 98 percent of all Internet users conduct business, searches and make purchases – via a fixed IP address.) And despite the up-tick of check-in services over the past year, a Pew Study research report showed that only 4 percent of American’s actually “check-in.”
We’re helping to expand and personalize your web experience, but without giving away personally identifiable information. No caloric cookies, no annoying check-ins! For example, by enabling the community to build location into a website with our API, we have friends like Mobiah, who have given Web developers the ability to customize content such as coupons, ads or weather widgets, using the WordPress plug-in they call GeoPosty.

What else are we looking at? Gambling legislation in the U.S. We have accounts in this industry in EMEA, and it’s easy to see why. It’s a profitable industry that could bring major changes to tax laws in 2011. Why not help stimulate our economy? See this Wall Street Journal article to bring yourself up to speed on recent legislation. For further insight, Casino Enterprise Management outlines how geolocation can help iGaming companies with compliance and regulation.

As we jump into 2011, the team is excited about integrating with a larger family, the Neustar family. We joined their family in the fall and as the year kicks off are thrilled about the new partnerships and innovation being forged between the two companies. The combination of services that Quova and Neustar offer are cutting down barriers in communications; between barcodes, DNS and geolocation, the breadth and depth of our services has grown exponentially. The synergies between our companies allow Neustar to complete the “Network Puzzle” and bring a presence that is rooted in Virginia into the Silicon Valley. Keep an eye on our blog for exciting updates that will be coming this year.

And finally, developers looking to test the waters with geolocation, we welcome you to join Quova’s developer community at http://developer.quova.com/.Twitter users can follow our developer updates @QuovaDeveloper or @Quova.