Tech Edge: Is Geolocation the Next Social Empire?

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Illustration by Frank Chimero

Everyone from Google to HBO thinks 2010 is the year we embrace geolocation and tell friends and marketers our every move. Farhad Manjoo locates the problem with that idea.

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Is "checking in" the next tweeting? So say the tech cognoscenti, adherents of a new breed of online social service called "geolocation." When members visit their favorite restaurant, bar, or laundromat, they use their smartphone (in most instances) and a site such as Foursquare or Gowalla to...