Mobile application service provider Lightpole has introduced a beta version of software that expands on its application’s geolocation capabilities using Yahoo’s Fire Eagle. Lightpole provides businesses with a way to distribute content to mobile phone users, mostly regarding information related to points of interest (POIs). Fire Eagle, which launched last month, is Yahoo’s geo-information platform, which allows users to update their current location from other applications through an API. Locations can be set by a number of devices, including computers and cell phones (through GPS and services like SkyHook). Lightpole, one of the first developers to integrate Fire Eagle, uses this location information to find a list of POIs in the proximity. These POIs are then downloaded to the Lightpole application, where users can browse for information including business hours and phone numbers. Lightpole’s white label application can also be used by external sites to facilitate mobile access to their databases. For example, the bar locator MappyHour has partnered with Lightpole to provide automatic lookup of local watering holes based on a user’s location. Other features in the release include support for geo-tagged RSS feeds and the ability for users to add and modify POI information in the company’s database from their phones. Lightpole was founded in January 2007. The company received $2 Million in Series A funding from Alloy Ventures and Stanford University in Febuary 2008. Competitors in this space include Google Local and uLocate. CrunchBase Information LightPole Fire Eagle Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
I have big hopes for Yahoo’s new FireEagle platform announced in November 2007. They first described it to me as a Twitter for location. And it does stream your location information in a similar way that Twitter streams short messages. The service opened into private beta today. But it is also more than that. FireEagle has (well, will have) open APIs to send data in and get data out. That will make a variety of other web services much more useful, since they’ll be able to figure out where you are without asking. Flickr images, for example, can be auto-tagged with location by comparing the time the photo was taken to your location at that time in FireEagle. From our initial review: FireEagle, which is built entirely on Ruby on Rails, was originally inspired by Yahoo’s ZoneTag research product. It is a platform for controlling people’s location information. Tell it (directly or via a third party application built on FireEagle’s APIs) where you are (give it specific lat/long, or a city name, or a zip code, etc.) and it will note your location. Alternatively, users with GPS phones (or other GPS device) could set it to periodically update FireEagle with geo information. Users can turn off tracking at any point, of course, and can also go in and delete any or all stored geo data about themselves. Yahoo says it will be immediately removed from their servers. For now, though, the promise of FireEagle is still just that, a promise. The beta has next to no functionality – you can type in your location, which the service notes and then places on an embedded Yahoo map. “Soon,” though, you’ll be able to send a text message with your location, or use ZoneTags on Nokia 60 phones to broadcast your location automatically. They’ll also release a mobile site for easier text input. There will be a FireEagle embeddable badge that will show where you are. And, finally, they’ll have the mandatory Facebook application to update locations and track friends. Want in to the FireEagle beta? Get your invite here. Update (Henry Work): Just tested the fire eagle API and it seems to work fine. I was able to create an app quickly, authenticate it over OAuth, and then grab my location data from my desktop. There’s no directory for applications, so I can’t go viral with my tester app just yet, → Read More
Yahoo isn’t just announcing Kickstart this evening. Salim Ismail’s Brickhouse is announcing a very useful new platform service tonight tentatively called FireEagle, which is currently in closed alpha testing. The team is working on the launch name and final launch date now – it’s expected to be open later this month. FireEagle, which is built entirely on Ruby on Rails, was originally inspired by Yahoo’s ZoneTag research product. It is a platform for controlling people’s location information. Tell it (directly or via a third party application built on FireEagle’s APIs) where you are (give it specific lat/long, or a city name, or a zip code, etc.) and it will note your location. Alternatively, users with GPS phones (or other GPS device) could set it to periodically update FireEagle with geo information. Users can turn off tracking at any point, of course, and can also go in and delete any or all stored geo data about themselves. Yahoo says it will be immediately removed from their servers. Then other applications can take that data with your permission and build it directly into their service. This is perfect for services like Flickr, which still struggle to get users to add lat/long information to photos (With FireEagle, Flickr could just look at the time stamp on photos and note where you were on FireEagle at that time). FireEagle can also benefit by working with established place-blogging services like Plazes, both by giving and receiving geo information on users. The service will have open APIs for both adding and taking information. Ismail says they have been working with 50 or so third party developers in secret over the last couple of months, many of whom will have applications using FireEagle ready to go on the official launch date. I was able to take a few camera phone pictures during a demo of the product last week at Brickhouse. The resolution isn’t great (in fact it’s terrible), but you can get a feel for what the platform will look like. I’ve also included a shot of a Facebook application, below. I think I can safely say that there are a ton of developers who are going to be extremely excited about FireEagle. → Read More
