Google on Beacons Reshaping Marketing

In ThinkwithGoogle:

" ... Beacon technology is poised to change the way consumers interact with brands, making devices more helpful and revolutionizing the way retailers measure the offline impact of online ads.

 When it comes to cutting-edge marketing, one technology is top of mind: beacons. In fact, more than a million beacons are expected to be installed in U.S. retail stores this year alone. But right now, many marketers only think about using beacons to push phone notifications. At Google, we think beacons have the potential to do much, much more for consumers, brands, and marketers. 

To realize this potential, we created Eddystone and the Google beacon platform. With these platforms, beacons are no longer limited to communicating only with a brand's app. Brands can integrate beacons with Google products and services, as well as their own and their partners' apps. For consumers, this means a frictionless shopping experience, with fewer gaps between channels. For retailers, it means reaching the right person at the right time with the right message, with new and improved metrics to measure success.  ... "

Wi-Fi Aware as Beacon

Don't know where it is  currently being used, but Wi-Fi Aware can be used like a beacon in retail like those using Bluetooth Smart, the technology behind Apple iBeacon and Google Eddystone.   We experimented with Wi-Fi triangulation in the store lab for shopper location studies. It is said that some 100,000 beacons are in retail use today.   A more detailed comparison.

Google's Beacons: Eddystone

More movement towards proximity and location engagement methods.  Apparently more Open Source as well.  More vendors in this space should increase exposure to the idea.

Google Rolls Out Its Version of Beacon Technology
Eddystone Is Meant to Compete With Apple's iBeacon

Google is stepping up efforts against Apple's location technology with new tools to link smartphones to nearby objects.

The search giant on Tuesday introduced a new format called Eddystone that lets electronic beacons provide more specific locations and other information within applications, the company said in a blog post. The tools, which compete with Apple's iBeacon technology, will enable smartphone users at a museum, for example, to get more information on a painting they're looking at or to gain easy access to electronic bus tickets when they're near a bus stop. ... " 

More from the Google Developers Blog.  and in Ars Technica.

And in the Wikipedia.