Given the rapid growth in the use of mobile internet devices, localization is set to be the hot new trend in search engine optimization (SEO), according to Michael Boland of Search Engine Watch.
Boland cites the ongoing "location war" happening at the South by Southwest conference – in which geo-location services like Foursquare and Gowalla battle for dominance – as evidence that early adopters and tech opinion leaders are enthusiastic about the technology.
According to Boland, "mobile in general boosts local search intent, as we’ve covered, but many of the location services [are] now blowing up take it to another level. Based partly on privacy, the check-in (a form of opt-in) has replaced pervasive location tracking as the standard unit of social mobile measurement."
Search engine optimization (SEO) experts say that services like Foursquare provide exciting new possibilities for their profession, but warn that privacy and security can be problematic for users. A website called Please Rob Me attempts to illustrate the extent of the problem by collecting location-enabled updates from users that are outside of their homes.
