I’ve been thinking over the last few weeks that at last LBS (Location Based Services) is becoming a real market, what with the release of iPhone 2.0 and the imminent release of the first Android phone with its location platform. It has taken much longer then any of us would have expected, but applications using location are finally becoming mainstream.
At the same time however I have also been thinking that the term itself may no longer be appropriate. Actually location is just one signal that application and service developers can use to understand context, ie what is happening at any point in time to an individual and therefore what information is most relevant to them.
I quite like the term “context based computing” to describe this, as it encapsulates what we understand as LBS today but also extends into the future use of other types of sensors and devices to provide services relevant to specific activities we carry out in our daily lives.
A great example of the type of service I mean is the soon to be released fitbit, which was a runner up in this weeks Techcrunch 50 event. Fitbit is a small device which measures your activity during the day and night and reports back to your computer whenever you are in wireless network range of it, building up a profile of the calories you burn, how much time you sleep and the quality of your sleep.
Very neat !
Written and submitted from the Google Office, London.
This morning we enabled Traffic Maps are part of Google Maps in the UK, and as a result of the magic of cloud based computing, all UK iPhone uses have new functionality to their maps application. 
