I normally don't try geo-location services because I'm a bit tired of the Foursquare and Gowalla hype and the lack of users in Europe. When I first heard about an GPS app that would pull social data from these services I didn't pay much attention, but the good coverage in other iOS specific sites made me give it a go.
Localscope [iTunes Link] by Cynapse is a navigation app that allows you to search in popular sources including social media to find locations and businesses in your vicinity. The big selling point is integrating a geo search function using Google, Bing, Twitter, Foursquare and Wikimapia, being able to compare results in the same interface.
For a number of years now, I have relied on simple Google searches and the fancy Where To? app, originally developed by Tap tap tap and now run by FutureTap. If you are also using Where To?, you'll be used to selecting a category to find the results closer to your location. Localscope takes a different approach, allowing you to type your interest, search and immediately see results from reliable sources.
Let's say you want to find a pizza place close to where you are. Simply type the word "pizza" (I'm doing this test as I write), and you'll be presented with a list (eight results in my case) courtesy of Google. Once you tap on the search result, you have the address of the pizzeria, telephone number and a website (in this test is the Google Maps entry with user reviews). On top of this, you also get the option to share this particular result to the usual social networks, but it also displays a small map with the restaurant location and a compass which indicates direction and distance.
I wouldn't normally use this at home, but running this test I realise I only know three of the eight results and that other pizza places in my neighborhood I normally go to are so far that they don't even appear!
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appfreak/~3/EaoZXGOcn8c/dynamic-local-search-with-localscope.html
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