Vicarious.ly Aggregates Location-Based Services
Location-based social networking is one of the hottest things right now. With Facebook recently announcing location features and Twitter's "places" API support coming soon, you won't be able to go on the internet without everybody knowing where you are anymore. Big Brother might not be watching you, but everyone else sure is.
SimpleGeo has launched a new Google Maps mash-up called Vicarious.ly that aims to collect all this location-based junk in one place. Right now the site is only available for Austin, just in time for SXSW, but the developers plan on launching sites for other major cities around the U.S. and internationally.
The service will pull feeds from BlockChalk, Brightkite, Bump, Flickr, Fwix, Foursquare, Gowalla, and Twitter and plot them as points on a map, giving real-time visual feedback about where people are at any given moment.
Unlike other location-based services though, this one doesn't seem to give any revealing information about individuals and their whereabouts. It only lets you know that "someone" checked-in at a specific location. A nice touch. Ultimately, Vicarious.ly will let you know where the hot spots are, but it's not going to tell you who's there.
Whether you want to find the most exciting event in town or a quiet place that doesn't seem to be too busy, Vicarious.ly can help you out.
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