Today Twitter enabled geo-tagging for third party tools, allowing users the ability to tag tweets with their current location.
From the Twitter support site: “Twitter’s Geotagging feature allows users who opt-in to the service to selectively Geotag their tweets with their exact location and provide more context to users about their surroundings. This great new functionality allows you to join into a local conversation and annotate the world around you as you travel from one place to another.”
What this means for you and me
Tying a tweet to a location will probably go down as one of the biggest steps towards making the web more local. Here are just a few things we can expect:
- Local restaurants will know when to tweet out discounts.
- Retailers will be able to determine the best location for their stores.
- Political protesters will be able to organize much more quickly and effectively.
- Tools like @foursquare can allow users to automatically “check-in” to Panera Bread, just by showing up.
- Companies like ZipCar will add a location service to their offerings.
- The police and fire departments will be able to re-direct crowds easier.
- Tweetups will be much more spontaneous.
How to enable geo-tagging
Under the account tab, simply select “enable geo-tagging” and then you’re goof to go. You can also delete your location data.
What do you think about geotagging?
