Syber News

Although location, location, location has been the mantra of many Internet companies of late, apparently most Americans still don't see the need. Only 1 percent of the U.S. uses location-based services on a regular basis (which the New York Times equates to weekly).

In fact, only 4 percent of Americans have even tried location-based services. Eighty percent of those who have tried such services are male, and 70 percent are between 19 and 35.

So, are venture capitalists throwing money away? After all, according to the National Venture Capital Association, VCs have poured $115 million into location start-ups since last year.

It appears that mainstream adoption of these technologies has not reached critical mass, but as the youth matures, that will probably change. Young people, through the use of social networking services, have grown up posting personal information online.

Sam Altman, CEO of Loopt says that 1981 is the magic year. “The magic age is people born after 1981. That’s the cut-off for us where we see a big change in privacy settings and user acceptance.”

That would mean anyone currently over thirty is probably not going to accept giving up privacy for location-based services. As you might recall, for teens, 30 used to also be the age named as the cut-off for when people become "old." Is that the problem? Are all those eschewing location-based services just old fogies?

Or is it that the location-based service that folks want hasn't arrived yet? With Facebook's recent announcement of Places, and 500 million Facebook users, will folks jump on the bandwagon?

Or, are over-30 users simply a little cautious, with a little more life experience, knowing that giving out your location to some people is an invitation to burglary?