• by Steve Smith  @popeyesm, July 20, 2012

Some applications of brand identity to mobile media are such no-brainers you have to wonder why they didn’t appear sooner. History Channel launched this week the History Here app for iPhone, which leveraged geolocation and the company’s deep database of historical data. Open the app and allow location tracking and the app finds you and pops up nearby pieces of historical interest. The app is drawing from a database of 3,500 locations. I live five miles from the Delaware Memorial Bridge and I never even knew it was the second-largest twin suspension bridge in the world. Go figure.

Most of the listings have images and all of the items have bite-sized descriptions, a link to any available Web site and a click-to-call link. In our search of the historic Philadelphia city center, the map blossomed with location pins and could serve essentially as a walking guide. The user can deploy map or list mode and determine the radius for a search.

The app is free and ad-supported. The company appears to be using the banner space to cross-promote other apps in the History/A&E cable channel universe of mobile downloads as well as the mobile-optimized History Channel store.