i’m very excited about lonely planet’s new api and their willingness to open up their data to mobile use.  my sense, from this google blog post, is that you’ll be able to hit their site with your location-aware mobile and they’ll recommend nearby points of interest, generally or by category/tag.  if i were them (or their next competitor to develop this), i’d shy away from the subscription model and deliver extremely targeted ads instead – in the browser?  by e-mail?  i’m not sure.  in any case, it seems like technology is finally catching up to what it should be – environmentally aware and helpful in contextualising our world.  how absurd is it that people take classes in how to use computer interfaces?