Full disclosure: BoomTown is several hours into the spiked eggnog here at All Things Digital Worldwide HQ, so our headlines are 100 percent spikier!
All joking aside and without much blabbery from me, you can read the entire blog post below from Twitter on a new purchase.
The microblogging service–oops,information network!–just acquired Mixer Labs, makers of GeoAPI, which helps developers build location-based services.
Thus, Mixer will help Twitter in the geo-location arena–now a hot pocket of hype and, to be fair, innovation. Mixer also has TownMe, a local information Web site.
Mixer will join Twitter at its new San Francisco offices (you can see my tour of its new HQ here, which I posted yesterday).
As Twitter CEO Evan Williams wrote:
“We want to know What’s happening?, and more precisely, Where is it happening? As a dramatic example, twittering “Earthquake!” alone is not as informative as “Earthquake!” coupled with your current location.
If I feel the earth move under feet, I can now feel better than I can be found by rescuers under the rubble, now that Mixer is there to help.
Here is the blog post:
Mixing It Up at 795 Folsom St
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
In August, we previewed expanded location support for developers. Last month we launched our Geotagging API with support from several of the top Twitter clients. When current location is added to tweets, new and valuable services emerge—everything from breaking news to finding friends or local businesses can be dramatically enhanced. Our efforts in this area have just begun. Today, we’re excited to announce a major new step into the location-aware future. Twitter has acquired Mixer Labs, creators of GeoAPI.
The Mixer Labs crew has been working on harnessing the power of local information for a couple years and just recently launched GeoAPI, a comprehensive service for helping developers build geolocation-aware applications. As of today, they’re part of Twitter and will be working to combine the contextual relevance of location to tweets. We want to know What’s happening?, and more precisely, Where is it happening? As a dramatic example, twittering “Earthquake!” alone is not as informative as “Earthquake!” coupled with your current location.
We will be looking at how to integrate the work Mixer Labs has done with the Twitter API in useful ways that give developers behind geo-enabled apps like Birdfeed, Seesmic Web, Foursquare, Gowalla, Twidroid, Twittelator Pro and other powerful new possibilities. We look forward to building features together that will make Twitter even more interesting and relevant to your daily life, no matter where you are. Please join us in welcoming this fine new crew to Twitter Headquarters—795 Folsom St, San Francisco, CA.
Posted by @Ev at 2:00 PM
Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]