Why do you use Foursquare (or Gowalla)?

3 points·nicholasreed··3 comments

What is the appeal of Foursquare/Gowalla? Is the value in the competition, or exploring new places? What makes you pull it out of your pocket to check-in?

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I deleted both off of my iphone. Random people Ive never met started adding me on gowalla. Foursquare was cool, but the same people kept checking in everywhere they went (gamestop, starbucks, pollotropical, etc.). The game aspect was fun. I can say, there were 100x more people in the bay area using it which showed the possible potential. The most fun I've had with it? Screwing around with a group of 8 people and checking into cars, rival houses, and causing chaos.

I do think the concept of checkins and such is something VERY powerful for businesses. I think there's more use in "geo-physical social bookmarking" ie- I can favorite and show people what I like, while getting deals from businesses. The whole mobile social networking thing is just a feature to me and I'm waiting for facebook to do it. What delicious did for internet bookmarks, is what I see foursquare or some service like it doing in the future for physical objects.

Thanks J. I absolutely agree that the check-in concept can be very beneficial to businesses, both for understanding customers and attracting new ones.

i use gowalla (prettier) mostly just to kill time while i wait in line or for the bill to arrive. and to stalk my friends. not much use beyond that, to me.

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