With SXSW happening this week, the battle for app of the year begins. This year, I think the focus is going to be location aggrigating apps – apps that pull in geolocation data from multiple social networks, and combine them in a common map and feed. Here are a few top apps out there – some new, some old:

• Highlight “Highlight helps you learn more about the people around you.  If someone standing near you also has Highlight, their profile will show up on your phone. You can see their name, photos of them, mutual friends, and anything else they have chosen to share. When you meet someone, Highlight helps you see what you have in common with them. And when you forget their name at a party a week later, Highlight helps you remember it. As you go about your day, Highlight runs quietly in the background, surfacing information about the people around you. If your friends are nearby, it will notify you. If someone interesting crosses your path, it will tell you more about them.”
• Glancee “Explore the profiles of people nearby and be notified when somebody has common friends or mutual interests. Text or call, meet up for a coffee, and stay in touch. Create new, meaningful connections with new people just like you.”
• Banjo “Banjo taps into the most popular social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram and more, to provide a real time view of what’s happening anyplace, anytime. Our powerful friend alert technology lets you know when friends are nearby – even if they’re not on Banjo.”
• Sonar “Ever walk into a room and wonder if you have anything in common with anyone there? Sonar shows you how you are connected to the people around you by analyzing your Foursquare, Facebook, and Twitter networks. … Sonar uses publicly available profile information to help you discover the connections you share with people nearby. Sonar lets you take your online identity offline and meet real people in real life.”
• Blendr “Make new friends nearby with Blendr. Blendr is a location-based social network that uses your mobile device’s location based services (LBS) to help you discover new people around you. Featured in Apple’s Staff Favorites, Great Free Apps and New and Noteworthy, Blendr is the easiest way to connect with the world nearest you.”
• Find Friends “Find My Friends allows you to easily locate your friends and family from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Install this free app on your iOS 5 device and sign in with the Apple ID you use with iCloud. Adding a friend is easy – just send a request to see their location. Once your friend accepts using the Find My Friends app, you will then be able to see that friend’s location on a list or on a map. “
• Snapr “Snapr ?’s iPhoneographers, over-sharers, and all social snaprers :) Use our service to broadcast your favorite moments, track the places you visit, and record the things you see. We bring people’s shots together by place and time and make it easy to keep track of your family and friends. You can link your account to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare and use Snapr as a social hub for sharing photos and meeting new people.”
• Instabam “InstaBAM! is a photography application that finds photos that have been taken around your actual location on Instagram. Not only can you discover photos around where you are right now, you can also use the world map and find photos from anywhere on the globe – Hawaii? New York? London? Sydney? Just find your spot and drop the pin!”