Four percent of online adults use a service such as Foursquare or Gowalla that allows them to share their location with friends and to find others who are nearby. On any given day, 1% of internet users are using these services. The following table gives a breakdown of the demographic differences among internet users who use geosocial or location-based services:

This report is based on the results of a telephone survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project conducted between August 9 and September 13, 2010. The survey was administered to a sample of 3,001 adults, age 18 and older, using a combination of landline and cellular telephones. Interviews were conducted in English or Spanish. The sample margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points for the general population and plus or minus 2.9 percentage points for internet users (n=2,065). 

Men are significantly more likely than women to use a location-based services (6% of online men versus 3% of online women), and Hispanics (English- and Spanish-speaking) are more likely than other ethnic groups to use these services (10% of online Hispanics do, compared to 3% of whites and 5% of blacks). There are no statistically significant differences by household income or educational attainment.

Location-based services such as Foursquare or Gowalla are significantly more popular with younger internet users; eight percent of online adults ages 18-29 use location-based services, significantly more than online adults in any other age group. Wireless internet users,¹ unsurprisingly, are also more likely to use location-based services, especially those who connect to the internet with their cell phone. Seven percent of all adults who go online with their mobile phone say they use a location-based service, as well as 5% of all wireless internet users.

Though location-based services usually require an internet-connected mobile phone, 2% of non-wireless users (those who do not go online with either a cell phone or a wireless-enabled laptop) also say they have used such a service. This number may include cell phone users who use geosocial services such as Brightkite, which allows users to update their location by SMS. These non-wireless respondents may also include respondents who use location-reporting services such as Google Latitude or Dopplr, which can be used on a desktop computer. Respondents may also have signed up for the services to follow friends’ movements without updating their own location.

Additionally, the ability to report one’s location is a feature that has recently been added to many pre-existing sites such as Twitter and Facebook. It is possible that as the lines between different types of services become increasingly blurred, it is difficult for respondents to always pinpoint exactly what sort of software they are using—especially on their mobile devices. Our recent report on the rise of apps culture, for instance, found that 11% of cell phone owners are not sure whether their phone is even equipped with apps.