Next Stop for Nextstop is Facebook
Hyper-local is the name of the social media game. Location-based services are driving that trend, and for a while, it was rumored that Facebook would jump into the game by snatching up Foursquare.
However, that doesn't appear to be coming true any time soon with Foursquare raging along.
What might have tipped Facebook's cap is their acquisition of Nextstop, a service that's only a year old that allows users to browse and create their own local guides and recommendations.
In an announcement on its website, Nextstop wrote that it will shut down on September 1, but will be releasing the Nextstop database under a Creative Commons license so that the guides survive.
Nextstop is pretty simple. Its bread and butter is focusing on creating simple, yet creative guides of local destinations and hotspots. It provides a range of community features such as badges and guide recommendations. It is more similar to Yelp than Foursquare, but the premise is pretty much the same.
While Nextstop will be going bye-byes, the real steal here is the talent and technology that Facebook will acquire as a result.
It'll be interesting to see how Facebook integrates Nextstop into its service and whether or not the social media king will start to knock off some of its much smaller, social content competitors.
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