A new app for the iPhone is bringing together search, local and augmented realty: the aptly-named Poynt.  The app uses augmented reality for a real-time view of businesses, people, retailers and theaters around the user. It also integrates with other features like the address book, maps and, of course, phone.

There are a number of apps that offers pieces of these functions, but few have been able to mash together the elements in one app, writes CNET.  “The field of iPhone search apps is already crowded with Yelp, Urbanspoon, and Zagat for dining; Flixster's Movies app for showtimes; YellowPages for people; and Google Mobile App for just about everything else.“ Now here comes Poynt, it said.

Essentially Poynt is an aggregator of third-party services encased in an attractive wrapper with SuperPages.com powering the business listings; CinemaSource, the entertainment information and MovieTickets.com facilitating movie ticket purchases.

New Meaning of Search

Such apps are beginning to change the meaning of search and local advertising, according to Internet2Go. “It’s very tempting to dismiss "geo-social games" such as Foursquare, Gowalla and MyTown as fads," Internet2Go said. "Yet doing so would diminish how these apps alter the culture of local mobile search and even location-based "advertising" in potentially significant ways.”