Softpedia >News >Web / Internet Life >Internet Life
Softpedia Homepage   

Twitter Trends Battle It Out Locally with GeoMeme

An interesting application of the Twitter geolocation API

Nov 30, 2009 11:44 GMT  ·  By
GeoMeme puts Twitter's new geolocation API to good use pitting trends against each other
   GeoMeme puts Twitter's new geolocation API to good use pitting trends against each other

Location is one of the major trends online and, in a few years time, most services will include some sort of functionality based on location information. Ever the trend setter, Twitter has jumped on the bandwagon and has implemented a geolocation API for third-party services, meaning that users can choose to send their location with their tweets and it will show up in apps which support the feature. The API hasn't been live for that long and already people are starting to do interesting things with it, like GeoMeme which pits two trends against each other to see what the local Twittersphere has to say about it.

“Visitors to GeoMeme choose a location on the map, and two search terms to compare. GeoMeme then measures and compares the number of matching tweets within the bounds of the map, based on public data from a number of mobile twitter apps,” the site's creator, Bob Hitching, writes.

Using the site is as easy as it gets. GeoMeme determines your current location and centers the map, powered by Google Maps, to where you are at the moment. You can then enter any two search terms and the site will count the number of mentions it gets in the tweets coming from the area you selected. Depending on how accurately the site can determine your location, the map starts out with just your neighborhood, but you can zoom out as far as you'd like and the search area will adjust accordingly.

Not exactly visionary but there's definitely potential here. The main setback for the moment is the fact that most Twitter clients don't support the geolocation features just yet, but also the fact that people are still reluctant to reveal their locations when sending out a tweet. The site also has a mobile version and Hitching said he opted for this rather than a native app for development and deployment speed. “GeoMeme is a desktop web application and also a location-aware mobile web app for iPhone and Android phones,” he wrote. “Implementing the mobile version of GeoMeme as a web app has some advantages and disadvantages, compared to building native iPhone &/or Android applications.”