There's a new tool out that wants to provide a real-time geolocation services to anyone interested in letting the whole world know where they are at any given moment. It's called Loki, and it's basically a mashup of Google Maps and the cool WiFi location-finding technology from Skyhook Wireless, the company that provides GPS-like functionality to the iPhone and iPod Touch.

By installing the Loki toolbar and clicking on "Locate me", the toolbar uses your WiFi antenna to ping local hotspots and triangulate your location. This information is then fed to Loki, which updates your location status. If there aren't any WiFi hotspots nearby, you can update your location manually through their website. But that's not nearly as cool as the automatic feature. Check it out:   read more »

There's been a lot of buzz lately about the microblogging phenomenon. There's also been some shakeout recently, as the top 3 players in the microblogging application space, Twitter, Jaiku, and Pownce, have been competing for the loyalty and activity of a relatively small (but fast growing) community of "always-on" netizens. Until Google purchased Jaiku last October, not many people had even heard of "microblogging". That's because before 2007 there weren't enough people actually doing it to warrant a buzzword. But when Google buys a startup, analysts (and journalists) take note.

Jaiku was a Finnish startup with a cool product and a lot of promise. Or so everyone thought when the Goog put down cash to acquire them. Traffic and membership initially spiked, then, within a month, started to slide... A similar effect happened when Pownce launched last summer. It got a ton of press, loads of initial traffic, and then it too saw its numbers rapidly dwindle.

All the while, Twitter has kept a fairly steady growth rate, with a massive traffic bump last summer as microblogging hit the mainstream (probably due to the Pownce launch and its Kevin Rose/Digg connection). The difference is, Twitter achieved critical mass - a tipping point - that the others failed to reach. Without enough users and traffic, there's no reason to be on Pownce or Jaiku, in the same way there's no reason to be on Friendster (who's only current claim to fame is being the web's biggest social-network loser). Despite all the glowing press and cool features, without a healthy and active community Pownce and Jaiku will have a hard time staying alive. And that's too bad, because having signed up for all three, I can honestly say that they are all great services. The only way I can see them all thriving is if they all agree to adopt a more open ecosystem like the IM world has done with Jabber. That way Twitter users could mingle freely with Pownce and Jaiku users, something that would benefit everyone. And that would be something worth microblogging about.