Six Apart, creator of the blogging platform Movable Type, has partnered with LightPole, a mobile application provider. The two companies have co-developed a plugin for Movable Type that will allow bloggers to geo-tag their posts, create geo-located Points of Interest, and publish content through LightPole channels to mobile phones. The plugin brings Movable Type to two distinct (and important) markets: Geo-enabled websites and location-based phone services. These features could be a boon to bloggers, especially those that write about real-world locales, such as restaurants or landmarks. They may also help writers reach a much larger audience through mobile phones. The news comes soon after LightPole’s implementation of Yahoo’s geo-information platform FireEagle last month. CrunchBase Information LightPole Six Apart Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
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
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