GeoHackr • com

Broke on TechCrunch two days ago, Loopt aquired Y Combinator startup GraffitiGEO.

Loopt is a phone-based application that “shows you who’s around, what to do, and where to go.” And GraffitiGEO is a phone-based application that allows you to tag your location. I can see why Loopt would show an interest in GraffitiGEO, and I am very excited to see what comes out of this acquistion!

This is definitely a shot towards foursquare, but I am hoping that this acquistion will just force both Loopt and foursquare to pick up their games!

This is just another example of the phone-based location-aware applications are picking up steam and are really going to hit it big. I have already talked about the up-and-coming applications that are going to support “augmented reality,” but this acquistion just shows that there are other parts of this genre that are alive and kicking.

It is interesteing to note that both of these application started on the iPhone. I am always amazed on how the iPhone has opened the world for us geographers. Having what comes to a mini-computer as a phone really allows for these applications, and with these application location-aware geography, to come into the lime-light.