Squarespace, web content management service, announced this week it was incorporating geo-location data directly into the platform. They claim they are the first service to achieve such native integration.

Squarespace's platform fully integrates data from foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places and provides a way for users to incorporate this information as they wish within their Squarespace websites. 

Squarespace is an online content management platform. It's used frequently for blogs, but much like Typepad, it can be used to develop full websites. While the service is designed for non-technical folks to get up and running quickly, it is highly customizable and provides the means for developers who wish to do so, to modify existing templates or create their own.

Squarespace hopes that its customers will use the location services to find ways to connect members of their community in interesting ways. Squarespace founder Anthony Casalena believes this will help differentiate his product. "Location technologies are transforming how we experience, and navigate our world and we felt there was an opportunity to provide a fully customizable and native multi-media geo-location solution to our users." 

Geo-location is still very much in its infancy and I expect we will see other CMS platforms incorporate this type of technology in a similar way. It's worth noting you can do this with some services now, using a WordPress plug-in for example, but Squarespace believes it's different because it is natively supporting this information without external programming.

For more information:
- see the Squarespace press release

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