Social Mobile Applications - what I see emerging

I have been going around for the last few weeks and looking at what people are working on and what seems to be getting traction. I have been describing it to friends as the social mobile revolution. People are taking older, successful ideas and asking themselves if there is a social or mobile aspect that would totally revolutionize how people use this product.

Can collecting data from people's phones that is geo-tagged make restaurant reviews better? One idea that won at Startup Weekend was FoodSpotter. It allows people to take photos of dishes that they enjoy at a restaurant with iPhone. This is then tagged by location and collected at a web site. Then you can use your phone to track down a dish rather than a restaurant. My wife understood the concept in 3 seconds and wanted to use it.

The common thread is that restaurant reviews have been around a long time. They serve a basic human need. However, almost every person now has a camera in their phone, and that camera knows (or soon will know) your location. This makes for an easier and more interesting version of the old product.

The second area is leveraging the social graph that sites like Facebook are creating. What would make restaurant reviews more interesting is knowing the opinions of people in your friendship network. Broadcasting out to your network or receiving from your network information about dining is more meaningful than a review by someone you don't know.

Again, it is taking a proven model and enhancing it with the two most exciting platforms to arrive in the last 3 or 4 years. I have been slow on the uptake but I am starting to see the new pattern. Now, I just have to find an area that hasn't already been staked out and turn over someone else's non-social, non-mobile apple cart.