GPS Nüvi Blog

The popularity of personal location devices, led by Garmin and followed by dozens of other companies, and the growing reach of social networking sites like Digg may soon be merged as new technology seeks to integrate multiple features into smaller (and more powerful) devices.

Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Fark, Reddit, del.icio.us, Facebook, and the internet’s other social networking sites serve mainly to spread news and gossip to niche audiences, as well as to connect people with common interests. In the future, this concept will be used for more explicit and immediate commercial purposes, possibly even relying on the public to do the work (like they do now on Digg and other sites).

A few years ago, GPS devices just told you where you were on a crude little screen. Then maps were added, and this was quickly (and inevitably) followed by extensive listings of gas stations, restaurants, malls, and all the other institutions that keep well-heeled urban areas chugging along.

It is obvious that this will soon become a standard, unremarkable part of driving (or just being - GPS has already begun its metamorphosis from an automotive device to a personal one, like a cell phone). And to keep things interesting, you will be able to use your GPS to contact friends, share info about meeting places for lunch or shopping, and trade opinions and votes for various stores. Over time, people will gravitate towards those merchants who garner the most votes. Other merchants will go out of business.

Like Digg’s egalitarian system where votes send popular web pages to the top of the heap, so personal GPS devices in the near future will take the leap beyond reflecting what exists towards influencing what succeeds.

And who knows? Maybe social networking by GPS will even give some smaller shops the exposure they need to, if not conquer the Wal-Marts of the world, at least coexist peacefully with them.

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