Location Is Everywhere: SimpleGeo Launches

With the formal launch today of SimpleGeo, and another similar announcement coming from Placecast, it’s clear (as I previously said) that location and related data will be appended to most user-generated content — and most digital content generally speaking.

In conjunction with the Where 2.0 conference today, SimpleGeo has formally launched and announced formal products, as well as numerous partners:

Built with developers in mind, SimpleGeo eliminates the excessive time and money spent to build and scale location infrastructure.  For the first time, easy-to-use technology and tools will allow customers to have location-based services operational in minutes.  SimpleGeo provides client libraries and SDKs that enable app developers to get up and running quickly on the platform.  The SimpleGeo iPhone SDK makes it easy to build an augmented reality interface in dramatically less time.

At launch, the company already has more than 4,000 developers utilizing the SimpleGeo platform for new and existing applications, including major innovators such as Bump Technologies and ngmoco. More than 1,000 additional developers are awaiting the product’s formal launch. The company is introducing two major products today:

• The scalable, cloud-based SimpleGeo Storage Engine is a pay-as-you-go system that allows users to store location data and perform geospatial and temporal queries efficiently.
• The SimpleGeo Marketplace allows developers to discover a wealth of geodata from numerous sources, all normalized and available in one location.  The SimpleGeo Marketplace creates a new economy for geodata providers, putting them directly in touch with developers that want to use their data. Currently there are billions of points of geodata in the market that customers can access, and it continues to grow.  Data is accessed through a per-use or monthly subscription, or a limited free version.

Twitter previously acquired MixerLabs and Facebook is widely expected to launch a location platform or capability at its F8 developer event coming up later in April. Google has been providing location data to third parties and Yahoo, which was one of the first out of the gate with location for third parties (FireEagle), has regrettably let its service languish. Then there’s Skyhook, now Placecast, UrbanMapping and Maponics — all providing varying types of location data.

Location will be seamlessly integrated into most content in one way or another going forward and it will be deeply embedded in the fabric of mobile.

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