One area of microblogging that hasn’t gotten much attention from us is location-based microblogging. The term location-based means that the service you’re using to post updates is aware of your geographic location, whether it’s accurate to a city, neighborhood, or your actual location. There are a few top competitors in the space, including Brightkite, Loopt and Fire Eagle.

The concept of location aware microblogging introduces many privacy implications. The major one is that everyone you send your update to knows where you are when you send it. Brightkite in particular allows you to view other users who have checked in near your area, which was intended as a way to find and meet other people around you. There are also fairly sophisticated privacy filters inside Brightkite that protects your location from being seen by people you don’t trust.

Integration with Microblogging

Depending on the network you’re using, you may already be participating in microblogging. Brightkite, for example, has its own friend stream and functionality that other microblogging networks have. Fire Eagle, on the other hand, is just a platform that other services can tie into (in fact you can integrate Fire Eagle into your Brightkite and Pownce accounts).

Twitter in particular is known for its mobile capabilities. Brightkite is integrated with Twitter to send check-ins to your Twitter account that contains text and links to your photos (if you took one). Here’s an example of how Mike used Brightkite last week at Highlight Midwest:

The link to bkite.com is a shortened URL which leads to the actual Brightkite check-in:

There’s no reason you couldn’t microblog your Brightkite check-ins on other networks – it just doesn’t have the automatic bridge like it does with Twitter.

Sounds like a niche market to me…

This type of microblogging is generally accessible to most people in one way or another. Some networks have dedicated iPhone apps, some have a mobile web interface, and some can operate by SMS. SMS is generally considered the least common denominator when it comes to mobile phone technology, so many platforms integrate it as their “mobility effort”. Brightkite in particular has multiple ways its users can interact with the servers, but some of the SMS commands for checking in and sending updates can be tough to remember. Luckily, they have a pocket guide (PDF) to interacting while going mobile.

Who, What, When – and now Where

The three big questions that microblogging answers are who, what, and when. This info can be gleaned just by looking at a status update. Location-based microblogging adds and answers the where question in addition to the previous three. When you upload a photo, it also sends along your location (if you want it to) so you can show others where you found something of interest. A perfect example is taking a photo of a landmark and letting Brightkite remember where you were, thus making it simple for you (and others) to find that location again.

Accounts To Follow

@brightkite, @loopt (both on Twitter)