Yesterday Yelp released an update to their iPhone application. I probably wouldn’t have even noticed, except that I visited the app store to download the new Facebook application that everyone was in an uproar about, and it told me there was a new version. So, I downloaded it, checked the notes to see if they had added the ability to post reviews direct from the app (still no? Come on Yelp!) then closed the app. I had pretty much forgotten about it until I saw a tweet a few hours later on twitter from another local Portland chap, Marshall Kirkpatrick, of ReadWriteWeb titled "Yelp brings first US augmented reality to iPhone".  That caught my attention right quick!  I clicked on the link, and couldn’t believe what I was reading.  Apparently there’s a hidden feature in the new Yelp app that allows people to unlock an Augmented Reality (defined here) function.  What, what, what?

As some readers may know, I’ve been babbling about Augmented Reality on my blog for the last few weeks. It’s a fascinating technology that I believe has a TON of potential if used correctly. From what I understood, Apple wasn’t allowing the release of AR applications until the next iPhone software update.  The technology is here, and I guess by including the function in a release of an application update, developers are able to basically sneak it in. Hey, whatever works, right?

Shake it, shake it, shake it!

According to the article, you’ve got to shake your iPhone 3 times in order to activate this hidden feature. Boy did I feel silly sitting there shaking the crap out of my phone. I was almost to the point of thinking this was all just a rotten joke being played on me when low and behold a little message appears on my screen. It reads something to the effect of "The Monocle is activated. Yelp thought reality is boring, so we augmented it and added a button to the upper right hand corner of the application window". Clicking this Monocle button brings up the camera function within the Yelp app and allows you to view the world with the addition (or augmentation) of Yelp reviews layered over what we know as reality. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me.

So, what does this have to do with Real Estate?

If you attended Connect SF this month, you may have heard Yelp COO Geoff Donaker discuss the fact that thousands of Real Estate professionals have been reviewed on Yelp. It’s the ultimate in transparency, and it’s where our industry needs to head whether we like it or not. Now hold that thought.

Enter a Swedish company called TAT (The Astonishing Tribe) and their product "Augmented ID". Basically, it’s a facial recognition system combined with social networking profiles. I won’t go into much more detail here. You can watch the video on their blog.  It’s pretty amazing.

Connect the dots!

See where I’m going with this? No? OK, keep following me here. Let’s say I’m an agent. I would take a mug shot of myself using my iPhone. By uploading that image into my profile, I activate a feature that allows anyone else to use the Yelp Monocle to access reviews my past clients have left, simply by pointing their iPhone (running the Yelp Monocle) at me just as we are able to do for businesses now with this new release.  Assuming the reviews are positive, my face is now possibly one of my best marketing peices.

Like I said earlier, the technology is already here, and as scary as it may sound to some people, I think the transparency that it can create will help push us closer to where we need to be as an industry.

Your thoughts?

Jeff Bernheisel is the Marketing Coordinator at Inman News

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