Four Things to Improve Foursquare
Geo-location based social media is touted to be the next big thing. What is geo-location based social media? Basically it’s a quick way of updating your location via your mobile phone. You ‘check in’ or tell other people (your friends) where you are. If you don’t know what it is check out Foursquare or Gowalla. With a growth similar to twitter in it’s early days Foursquare is the front runner of the geolocating game. It’s got the most people on it and a social network is only as good as the people using it.
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It’s quite easy to see the benefits of Foursquare, it makes it easy to meet up with friends, lets you know if it’s safe to arrive at a party (you can see if there is anyone there yet or anyone you like), brings customers and rewards loyalty for businesses and is generally a fun thing to do. Having played around with Foursquare and it’s little competitor Gowalla for a month there are are a few things i’d like to see Foursquare add to make it even better:
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1. Event check ins
Being able to check into events not just buildings and places. Ie It would be great to be able to check into a rally, demonstration, concert, festival, conference etc or other events that are time limited. Ie Check into an arts festival and see others going to all the events and get tips that relate directly to what you are attending.
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2. Unlock videos etc
Rather than just unlocking badges when you check into places or discounts from businesses it would great to unlock videos or pictures or other limited secret things. Ie I could check into a demonstration and it would unlock a video explaining what the demonstration was about.
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3. Photos and videos added to a location
This is something that Gowalla already has and really adds to the experience. Ie Being able to add a photo of a great meal as well as leaving a written tip on a check-in.
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4. Trips
Another thing that Gowalla has that is really good is the ability to create trips or paths for other people to follow. Ie You can make up a walking trip of historical places around your neigbourhood that other people could walk.
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Being the antisocial hermit that I am I’m not convinced geo-locating is for me just yet. I can however see many possible uses for trade unions and will post some of my ideas on that tomorrow.
You may be interested to know that Foursquare has just integrated Facebook’s “like” feature into each and every venue.
http://mashable.com/2010/05/05/foursquare-like-buttons/
Cheers
Alex
Thanks Alex. Foursquare has been adding features gradualy which is probably smart on their part. I’m keen to start liking places and would love to dislike places too.