Location based social networks were a topic of post before, and I just thought I wanted to update things with a few months of detailed experience with a few.
So how do I like it? A fair amount. I guess it’s become so regular that my wife brought it up in the store one day. Something about me whipping out the phone as soon as I get somewhere.
You know what? It’s true… I did most times, but I tried to keep it quick and discrete… Notice the past tense? I’ll get to that.
I’ve currently have three location based applications on my phone: Foursquare, Gowalla, and CauseWorld. I gave Waze and MyTown a shot as well – but they’ve gone the route of being deleted. Sure, Facebook and Twitter both have Geo-locational features now, but I don’t like them as much.
Most of my gripes in the past little primer of Foursquare and Gowalla have been addressed – except for one big one in terms of Gowalla. Sometimes the GPS or location is so off that I can’t check into a location. It happens enough to be routine. And that’s a routine that annoys the crap outta me being in a city that’s not a primary media market, but it’s not that small.
CauseWorld is an app that gives you points for checking into locations. With those points, you can donate to causes and charities. You get 5 points a check point, and with 100 points you can plant a tree in a rain forest. Many other causes at any number of points. Of course it’s all virtual, and therefore theoretical as far as I know. If some guy told you that high-fiving him on your way to work would mean a donation to a good cause of your choice, would you do it? I would just in the hope that it may be actually true.
Waze is a free GPS of sorts that gives points by going on lesser known routes. You can also check into Foursquare through the application. It’s not very good, and it’s gimmick is that it becomes a pac-man like game when you have the application running and drive on certain roads. It’s kinda cool if the application worked better and the GPS weren’t so slow. It also feels like it’s encouraging you to waste gas.
My Town is game out of the Zynga playbook that attempts to get users to spend large amounts of time checking in and cultivating their towns. You can buy upgrades and such for virtual or even real money. Yeah, it’s a real racket. Neither were good enough to bother.
So, what’s with the past tense thing I referenced above? I decided to try something and time off of checking in. I did so for about a week, and it wasn’t hard to forget the habit. Just went about the day pretty normally. Was was really hard? Getting back into any routine of checking in. It’s been a few weeks, and it’s really hard to remember to check in. Maybe I just don’t care much anymore… Maybe I feel like this is just one of those things better if you have group of friends that do it or are in a large enough pool of people that do it.
I did think of something that would improve the Foursquare experience. Currently, there’s a Mayor honor to the person with the most check ins within a two month period. This is probably the best part of the experience, and it’s extremely competitive in larger markets. I think that should be extended to include other time sensitive governmental titles like Governor, President, or whatever. President could be the most check ins over the span of a year… Sheriff could be the most check ins in a given week… But that would mean someone would have to read this who cared.
I do really like that Foursquare has begun partnering with other companies, brands, and media outlets. It’s a good way to have a relationship with your location.
I’m pretty sure that in the long run, I’m going to go down to only really checking into Foursquare regularly, and then Gowalla only if I haven’t checked into that location before. Or, I could abandon it all together if the features don’t progress to being more enjoyable in a secondary market like Indianapolis. Or I could just get a life…