In about 10 days, Localogy will hold its next conference, Localogy Place: The Real World Metaverse. Deviating from common metaverse connotations – involving online synchronous 3D worlds – it’s all about how digital content and data are adding depth and dimension to the places & spaces around us.
In that spirit, we’re gearing up for the show by immersing ourselves in the topic, excuse the pun. So for the latest Video Vault post, we’re spotlighting a session from Localogy 2021 that began to drill down on the real-world metaverse. It featured Foursquare and Epic Games’ efforts in this area.
Check out the session video below, preceded by our summary notes and strategic takeaways. Hope to see you in 3 weeks in NYC, where we’ll feature more insights from Foursquare, among others…
The Metavearth
Though the m-word has been rendered almost meaningless through overuse, it does represent legitimate principles. Some of those apply to local commerce. Beyond digital domains like gaming, metaverses will overlay the physical world to enable AR devices to evoke geo-anchored content.
Stepping back, the term metaverse broadly refers to digital domains that host synchronous interaction between placeshifted participants. In other words, time is synced for real-time digital interactions between far-flung individuals. You could argue that’s what the internet is, and you’d be right.
The difference with the metaverses is that it’s “embodied” as Mark Zuckerberg says. That’s a fancy way of saying it happens in 3D. We can point to metaverse-like fiefdoms today as examples, including MMOs like Fornite, Roblox, and Minecraft. There are also more immersive VR experiences like Altspace.
But again, the metaverse has two tracks. In addition to fully immersive and game-like experiences, there will be a real-world metaverse (or “metavearth”) that unlocks geo-anchored digital twins that enliven physical objects. This track is actually more fitting to the Greek root “meta” which means beyond.
Use cases will include local search, navigation, and discovery. Rather than typing local search terms, the idea is to hold up your phone with Google Lens or Snap Scan to see geo-anchored annotations. That could include, education, entertainment, or business details that float above storefronts.
The Next SEO?
But for all of the above to materialize, it will be all about data and devices to render content. The latter will include smartphones today and AR glasses tomorrow. As for the data piece, it will come together through myriad signals such as device sensors (IMU bundle) and location data.
And that’s where Foursquare comes in. Not only will it continue to be a valued part of the ecosystem for location-aware apps and location-based mobile advertising, but also local commerce’s next era of visual search. And it’s already gotten started given its Marsbot experiment to power “audio AR.”
To define that, audio AR whispers location-intelligent cues in your ear. It sidesteps the cost and style crimes of AR glasses while the hardware base is already established through AirPods. So Marsbot utilizes Foursquare’s Places database (105 million places) for an audio AR local discovery engine.
Back to visual AR, businesses can prepare by being “metaverse ready,” says Camera. This means having high-fidelity 3D models of your products, and other optimization to be present and prominent in the metavearth. If that sounds familiar, it’s broadly today’s SEO playbook, but more dimensional.
See our full panel discussion below…
