Promises to clean up location data.
Social location apps may be getting plenty of hype for their rapid growth, but they're also being challenged by issues like dodgy data.
Misplaced locations, duplicate places, and venues that have been made up by mischievous users of UGC-focused services... They can all put a spoke in the works of a location-based mobile app.
Startup Placecast claims to have the answer with its MatchAPI, which cleans up location data. It was launched less than two months ago, but has already signed up more than 200 location companies.
"The industry is joining us in the belief that the solution does not lie in a single, central database, says Placecast CEO Alistair Goodman.
"Every company must be able to maintain their own location data in whatever format they wish and be able to share it seamlessly with others when they want, on their terms, without needing a standard location reference scheme or ID system."
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Placecast has also published some data from its work with these 200+ companies, who include WCities, Buzzd and Socialight.
The average fault rate is more than 8%, but that rises to as much as 40% for services with a lot of user-generated location data.
For now, MatchAPI is North America only, although it has plans to cover other countries in due course.
