Over a quarter of U.S. adults use location-based mobile services

Foursquare and similar location-based check-in apps might sound silly to some, but they're gaining in popularity nonetheless.

A new survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found that at least 28 percent of U.S. adults have found a liking for mobile and social location-based services.

Kathryn Zickuhr, a Pew Internet Project research specialist and co-author of the report, explained in a statement:

Americans are not currently all that eager to share explicitly their location on social media sites, but they are taking advantage of their phones’ geolocation capabilities in other ways. Smartphone owners are using their phones to get fast access to location-relevant information on-the-go.

Here is how it breaks down:

• 28 percent of cell owners use their phones for directions or recommendations based on their current locations
• 9 percent of internet users configure social media services (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn) so that their locations are automatically included in their posts on those services
• 5 percent of cell phone owners check in to locations using geosocial services such as Foursquare or Gowalla

These numbers jump significantly when you account for smartphone owners only, probably because these sorts of utilities really built for smartphones. Therefor, they're easier to use with more graphically-enhanced and faster apps with 3G/4G connectivity.

For example, Pew found that 12 percent, or one in 10, smartphone owners use geosocial services, and as much as 55 percent use their smartphones for getting directions and recommendations based on current locations.

As far as demographics go, it's not much of a surprise that smartphone owners between the ages of 18 and 49 are more likely than those over 50 to use either geosocial or location-based services on their phones. However, Pew didn't find any no significant differences among social media users grouped by age in regard to automatic location-tagging.

For reference, Pew's survey is based on responses of 2,277 American adults aged 18 and over that were interviewed via landline and cell phones in English and Spanish between April 26 and May 22, 2011.

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