After announcing a partnership with Best Buy a few months ago, Shopkickis debuting a new implementation of its geo-coupon system at Target today. Users can now unlock coupons via Shopkick’s app in 242 stores in the Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, and San Francisco/Silicon Valley markets.

Information provided by CrunchBase

Everyone likes getting a good deal, but it's not always easy to find the right one at the moment you could use one. Imagine that while you're looking for a new place to try for lunch, you could see offers from restaurants nearby on your phone. On the other hand, I already love Zachary's Pizza, so imagine if I were rewarded for coming back there every week with my friends.

Starting today, local businesses will be able to offer you deals when you check in to their place on Facebook. Deals will be rolling out over the next few days and will only be available in the United States at this time.

We launched Places to let you share where you are with your friends and see who's nearby. Now with Deals, you also can see what offers are nearby and share those deals with your friends.

Finding deals near you is easy. On touch.facebook.com or the latest version of Facebook for iPhone, touch "Places" and then touch "Check In." Nearby Places with deals have a yellow icon:

 



When you touch the Place, you can view the deal and check in to claim it:

 

Clear Channel Outdoors today announced a free Android version of its FLYsmart mobile application, built by Geodelic Systems, that combines flight tracking functions with detailed airport maps and user location. Currently FLYsmart offers maps for 20 airports, but intends to add more facilities on a frequent basis. In supported airports, FLYsmart’s maps include gate locations, ATMs, newsstands, restaurants, gift shops, clubhouses, restrooms and other amenities.

As a regular traveler, I rely on smartphone apps to manage my flight arrangements, schedule and such. Over the past few years, I’ve used TripIt for this purpose, which has long been available on the major smartphone platforms. It’s unlikely I’ll switch from TripIt to FLYsmart because the latter doesn’t include scheduling features, but it does represent the opportunity for future location-based service (LBS) apps.

via gigaom.com

SCVNGR, one of the up-and-coming startups in the "check-in" application category has been on a roll lately. It has almost 500,000 users, is on track for reaching one million users by year-end, has integrated with Facebook Places, has launched a self-serve platform and has established partnerships with 1,000 businesses including Warner Bros., Sony, NatGeo, ZipCar, Journeys, Hot Topic, NE Patriots, Boston Celtics, NY Times, Boston Globe, and several universities. There are also 12,000 locations offering rewards to the app's users.

For the last several months, big brands have been consistently unveiling special offers on location-based services like Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, Booyah, and others. We’ve seen percentage-based discounts on purchases, dollars off, restaurant loss-leaders like appetizers and drinks, and sometimes even free meals.

Location technologies are transforming how we experience, navigate, and ultimately better our world. From the global to the local, here are #10Ways geolocation is a positive force for good.

Location technologies are transforming how we experience, navigate, and ultimately better our world. From the global to the local, here are #10Ways geolocation is a positive force for good.

Social media has changed the world. It has revolutionized communications on a global scale, and the transformation continues with every status update, blog post, and video stream. The global citizenry has become a global network. Since becoming widely adopted just a couple years ago, social media has supercharged social action, cause marketing, and social entrepreneurship. Indeed, the true value hasn't been the technology itself but how we've used it. Today, a second wave of innovation is defining a new era and setting the stage for change over the coming decade. Mobile technologies will extend the global online network to anyone with a mobile device while enabling countless local networks to form in the real world. We've decentralized media production and distribution. We're doing the same for energy. And we'll continue this trend for social networking, social action, and commerce. The combined forces of smartphones, mobile broadband, and location-aware applications will connect us in more meaningful ways to the people, organizations, events, information, and companies that matter most to us---namely, those within a physical proximity of where we live and where we are. Can location-based services (LBS) change the world? Here are #10Ways:

via thesocialcustomer.com