

Why do you use Foursquare (or Gowalla)? - nicholasreed

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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jasonlbaptiste
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.

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

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hackworth
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.

