Last weekend’s Mobile World Congress threw the spotlight on the next wave of handsets and apps. Particularly noteworthy was the focus on the shift towards participatory development of apps, specifically Google’s Android. The MWC showed that where in the past vendors pushed a suite of apps to users, now, like the web, even this technology has become user-generated.

The explosion of free mobile apps has further blurred the distinction between the virtual world and physical. Google’s Latitude for example takes social networking away from the PC and onto the street. This is an entirely new form of social networking, taking people one step beyond virtual interaction to meeting in person.

Is this the first step to finally getting people to physically interact through technology? As a Google Latitude user myself, I was recently questioned by a friend as to why I had been in Wimbledon at the weekend. While I am excited about the opportunities for impromptu meetings with long neglected friends, I’m slightly concerned about having to answer for all of my movements. In our rush to adopt new technologies are we over-looking the start civil liberty issues that geo-locating inevitably excites? Even the British Monarchy is not immune, with Buckingham Palace’s website publishing the Royal Diary on a Google Map.

If this represents a shift in social media and mobile technology away from the “traditional model” it certainly demonstrates a revolutionary shift from consumption through mainstream media. Last summer I visited Helsinki and used my HTC Kaiser and the extensive, free, wifi network as my tourist guide. My phone was my map, guide book, transport planner and social diary. I was even able to use a Google Maps mashup to locate my nearest tram and ensure I didn’t have to wait for one.

Social media has helped to globalise interaction but at the same time, mobile apps and mashups have localised the content. Geo-searching on smart phones provides users with locally relevant content (e.g. shops, bars, restaurants), which can be shared with their own personal network. This means that while apps like Latitude mean you can locate people more easily, it is ever harder to provide a single, measurable media output because every users’ experience of the web is personal. The technology and the debate have moved on since we last blogged on this topic, now marketers need to follow.