A few people have said that this years Twitter is going to be Foursquare. OK… So what it Foursquare (or the other similar site / application Gowalla)? Basically speaking they are social networks of sorts that rely on two things: mobile phones and location.
That tells you nothing, right? Basically once you’ve created a user account and loaded the application onto your handy dandy phone, you check in to what locations you happen to be at. You can also keep track of contacts / friends and all that jazz.
Beyond that, there are some differences between Gowalla and Foursquare.
Foursquare is a mixture of GPS and address. It uses the GPS location of the phone to look up the closest points to check into – the locations you can check into are address based. Users can post tips or to-do’s at locations for other users to see. The more points you check into or to-do’s a user does, they earn points that go onto a scoreboard between contacts as well as for your local community. There are also badges based on benchmarks. The points / competition part of Foursquare is kinda fun, but the best part is that you can see what other people think or recommendations for places (especially handy on restaurants).
Gowalla is more about GPS in terms of its location. When you go to check in, it’s points are only as accurate as the GPS readings your phone / the towers you’re on at any given location. The unique part of Gowalla is that you can drop / collect virtual items at any given location. The rumor is that there can also be actual physical items at some locations (but I’ve only head of it once in San Fran). Gowalla has things like stamps (the number of places you’ve checked into), pins (like badges in Foursquare), and trips (unique achievements in specific destinations and areas – none in my area).
Which one is better? That’s completely subjective, but my opinion is Foursquare has the advantage at this point in secondary markets (I have no experience with either in a primary market city). Why do I give Foursquare the advantage? Three reasons.
- GPS basis of Gowalla is not perfect. I tried to check in somewhere (a popular lunch destination in downtown Indianapolis) only to be told that the location created for the place was about 0.5 km to my east, and thus I couldn’t check in despite being right there. When I tried to create a new and correct spot, the map told me that I was three blocks away in another direction. Putting in an address when creating a point may be less convenient than automatic GPS, but it’s more precise when your phone or local towers may be on the fritz.
- Location points in Gowalla need to conform to specific categories, which aren’t always the most intelligent in their organization.
- The drop / collect item feature of Gowalla is pretty annoying in a secondary market witout a strong userbase. When you start up, you are given a number of of items, six I think. When you create a spot, you’re recommended to place an item to become a “founder”. Because there aren’t that many users in Indy, I’ve got only a few items because I keep entering spots.
Basically, foursquare is a little more refined and relies more on the user for thing like an address. It’s a little less frilly than Gowalla, and doesn’t restrict based on an organizational hierarchy forced on the users.
So what’s the deal? Why bother? I’m not sure completely. It’s something quick and easy to do that can also be a handy resource. I enjoy both to a certain level, but they could both benefit from more local users (especially users that know what they’re doing). As it is right now, I’m enjoying Foursquare and giving them both a little more time to increase the user base.
UPDATE (Jan 30, 2010): Foursquare has gone and taken any complaints I had and erased them (it’s now GPS based in adding locations in addition to the optional address – and it’s not as rigid in it’s gps check-in requirements). Gowalla hasn’t improved at all, and I’m beginning to consider dropping it. I’ve began leaning more towards Foursquare, and I’ve got the mayorships to prove it. There is another minor player on the iPhone – an app called CauseWorld. Check into different locations, and you gain Karma points that you redeem for philanthropic purposes. It’s a great thought, but it seems too good to be true.