From the local news to the far-flung international press, the media is a-buzz about Skyhook’s AIM location plugin that lets AIM users share their physical locations with their online buddies. The innovative new feature uses Skyhook’s Wi-Fi Positioning System to determine a user’s location and then displays that info to their buddies who are close by and also sharing location.

Adding location knowledge to AIM is a exciting new way to bridge digital and physical socializing. For example, it eliminates the typical:

“Where are you?”
“Oh, I’m at Les Deux waiting for Britney and Paris.”

OR:

“What’s up?”
“Chillin at Rocky Mountain Supply waiting for my new camo pants.”

Think about how much time that saved me this weekend alone!

You can download the plugin here.

In Barcelona last week, Skyhook Wireless was selected as one of three finalists in the Mobile Monday Global Peer Awards by some of the most influential analysts and commentators in mobile. Representing the Boston MoMo Chapter, we were selected out of 24 participants from Mobile Monday chapters all across the world (St. Petersburg to Melbourne to Bangalore…) with very cool and innovative mobile applications and services.

About 75% of our competitors used location as a feature or component in their nominated service. That’s a pretty high number, and suggests to us that LBS is gaining serious ground in the marketplace.