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"Despite the bungled launch and short hiatus, Twitter Places is back in action. The feature has huge implications for the geo-location space and the location-sharing movement.\nPlaces is a big improvement on Twitter's previous geo-location offering, which was never widely adopted or embraced by the majority of users. Whereas before users had to adjust their settings and agree to posting every single tweet with their geo-coordinates, now Twitterers are presented with an elegant way to attach a place to their tweet, one tweet at a time. \nRight now Places is a Twitter web and mobile experience only, but soon developers will integrate the Places API into their applications and services. Only then will we see Twitter Places reach its full potential. If Twitter can fix the issues crippling the service, then Places has the power to turn location-sharing into a mainstream behavior and significantly boost interest in applications like Foursquare \u2014 not to mention the monetization potential of location-based ads.\n1. Location-Sharing to Become Mainstream\n\n\n\n\nAs trendy and hip as Foursquare may be, it's still only reaching a small subset of the online population. While Facebook \u2014 due to its size and reach \u2014 is the most mainstream of the social networks, Twitter might have the best chance at making location-sharing a common behavior. \nTwitter is still the primary purveyor of real-time information and news, and location needs real-time visibility to thrive. Location-sharing amongst friends is certainly well suited for Facebook's purposes, but the value of location supersedes knowing where your friends are.\nJust two years ago, Twitter and its 140-character updates seemed silly, if not absurd. Now everyone from all walks of life including athletes, politicians, celebrities and media are tweeting. Location-sharing \u2014 via applications that use geo-location to tie locations to places for the purpose of letting users broadcast where they are \u2014 is prime for a breakout moment. Twitter can help take it there.\nThe tweet has proved to be a powerful and revolutionary way to communicate and spread information. Add location, in the form of places, to these messages and we could see a surge of interest. \nPlaces add context to tweets, which means that breaking news \u2014 whether it be related to a natural disaster, event, conference or other situation unfolding in real-time \u2014 flowing out in the form of tweets can be localized for further value. It's this context that will finally help location-sharing holdouts understand why location matters and how they could benefit.\n2. Boost Interest in Geo-location Apps\n\n\n\n\nAs it stands, Twitter is not a threat to location-based social games like Foursquare and Gowalla.  In fact, it's a complementary service that will positively impact user uptake. \nGiven that Places integrates with both services, users of Foursquare and Gowalla have double the incentive to continue updating their friends on their whereabouts. Checkins from either service are tied to places on Twitter, which means those updates get sucked into the Twitter Place feeds/streams. \nCheckins will also have broader reach on Twitter via the Twitter Place page, which means more exposure for Foursquare and Gowalla. More exposure will translate into more users who checkin more often, and so on, and so forth. \nPlus, as location-sharing becomes more accepted, users will begin to appreciate the added values that Gowalla and Foursquare bring to the table. Saving money \u2014 whether that be at Starbucks, Domino's or Sports Authority \u2014 is something that never gets old.\n3.  Promoted Places\n\n\n\n\nWith Places, Twitter has an opportunity to serve up highly targeted advertisements in the form of Promoted Tweets. \nAds could appear atop the Places tweet stream \u2014 a.k.a. search results for tweets at a particular place \u2014 and engage Twitter users with specific messages about a locale. Obviously this a feature that brands like Starbucks \u2014 an early Promoted Tweets user and Foursquare early adopter \u2014 could use for store-specific promotions or messages. Perhaps there's even a \"Promoted Places\" product brewing that will function similarly to the new Promoted Trends feature.\n\"Promoted Places\" may just be a projection at this point, but we are quite certain that Twitter's current fixation on advertising revenue will extend to Places. \n[img credits: MariShelbey and courtesy of iStockphoto, jorgeantonio]\n\nMore Location Resources From Mashable:\n- What the Future Holds for the Checkin- 3 Key Location Trends for Moms- Are Location-Based Services All Hype?- 7 Ways Journalists Can Use Foursquare- Why Hasn\u2019t Location Reached the Mainstream Yet?"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/06/27/twitter-places-implications/>