uLocate to speed content development with ‘widgets’

Location-based developer uLocate Communications Inc. is hoping to help even the smallest publishers get attention with a new application from Sprint Nextel Corp.
The Framingham, Mass.-based company this week unveiled WHERE, a GPS-enabled offering that allows users to personalize their phones with widgets, graphical interfaces that serve as windows to location-based services. Users are encouraged to create an online profile and choose from a number of widgets from different content owners-including partners Burger King, the real estate data Web site Zillow.com and Eventful.com, an online event-listing service-that provide localized information.
The downloadable application is offered to Sprint Nextel Corp. subscribers for $3 a month, and is designed to serve as a “mobile neighborhood” as it provides a way for lesser-known publishers to garner real estate on a mobile phone.
“We take a 12- to 18-month process (to create an application) and drop it down to two or four days, depending on the complexity level of the widget, and then you’re on deck,” said uLocate CEO Walter Doyle, adding that the company hopes to offer more than 500 widgets. “We’re estimating we’ll have upwards of 500 widgets in the not-too-distant future.”