dens:

I don’t think this form of mobile + social is that interesting. Knowing someone is approx in the East Village is different than knowing that “Kevin K. @ No Malice Palace (with 12 others)”. Venues are important, context is important, history is important. [...] … anyway, if you read a lot of the blog coverage for this stuff, the people that are really fired up about it are looking at it from the ‘oh, now I know where my wife and kids are” perspective (”location as presence” instead of “location as whereabouts”, if that makes any sense).

noah:

Is who’s nearby a business? [...] interesting piece over at Mobile Industry Review about Google Latitude and the business (or lack thereof) of letting you know where your friends are

It’s a bit like asking “Is knowing who’s online valuable” or “Is knowing who’s connected to someone else valuable”. The experiences you build on top of these questions are what’s valuable.