CauseWorld, a mobile app that contributes to charities and relief efforts around the world, is adding a location-based feature that will let shoppers boost the charity funds by scanning barcodes.

Yandex, the leading Russian search engine, will partner with the AlterGeo hybrid positioning startup to add location-based features to the Yandex maps and toolbar web applications.

Mobclix has bought Heartbeat, a cloud-based iPhone sales analytics tool, from Enormego for an undisclosed sum.

Philadelphia-based marketing company Monetate has responded to the growing demand for mobile e-commerce by introducing Monetate Mobile, a location-aware product for adapting Internet retail websites for satisfying use on mobile phones.

Intersec Group, a French provider of new-generation telecommunications software for mobile and integrated operators, has released Geolocator IGLOO Version 1.1, a location-based services (LBS) enabler.

QderoPateo has announced the launch of its first Blu-Pons location-based advertising network. The system has been installed at Independence Mall in Wilmington, North Carolina.

ShopAlerts, an opt-in, location-based advertising application launched by Placecast, uses geo-triggers to send marketing messages to customers only when they are inside a geofenced area around a store or other location.

Last week's Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona produced insights into likely major developments in major areas of mobile location-based services (LBS). Where is the industry headed in location-based advertising, social networking and technology, and who will make the greatest gains? Christopher Backeberg sums up...

Mobile phones have overtaken desktop computers for connecting to social networks, according to research by the Ruder Finn public relations agency.

How do you introduce "articulated naturality", a term most people have never heard, and make it commercially viable in the mobile market? One way is to launch to a market that doesn't exist yet because the technology is so new, writes Christopher Backeberg...