Mobile/local/social is the web’s sweet spot right now. And Google’s Marissa Mayer is in the middle of it.
We told you how Mayer engineered the acquisition of Zagat. That could turn out to be a very smart deal if Google gets us searching and sharing and mapping our ways to restaurants even more than we do today.
At the Coins2DayMost Powerful Women dinner in Silicon Valley last week, Mayer explained her strategy at Google, where she heads local efforts including maps. She also told us about three of her favorite mobile apps:
Google Maps 6.0: This app takes Google Maps indoors. In a Best Buy, for instance, you can make your way from tablets to TVs by viewing the floor plan and following that little blue dot that indicates your location. The app, launched last week for Android phones exclusively, also works in Home Depot, IKEA, select Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, and some airports such as O’Hare, Hartsfield, and SFO. Could Disney theme parks be next? Mayer wouldn’t tell us.
Layar: This browser provides “augmented reality” experiences. Combining a camera and GPS and accelerometer, it will display photographically where you are and also what’s down the road. Just as a cursor marks your position on a document, Layar transforms your phone into “a cursor for the world,” Mayer says.
LikeALittle: This app aggregates online profiles and maps them to help you find nearby people who have common interests. The LikeALittle states the purpose more specifically: “We like to think of the site as a flirting-facilitator platform (FFP for short), a way for you to anonymously compliment and chat about potential crushes around you.” Well, Mayer wouldn’t call this a flirtation, but she learned via LikeALittle that LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, whom she has known for years, majored in symbolic systems at Stanford, as she did. Here’s more app talk from Mayer: