Tag Archives: Gowalla

May19

Check.in Should Stay in Beta

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Check.in Should Stay in Beta

The existence of Check.in was only  a rumor at this year’s SXSW. We were all running around checking in to places with three or four different services, and as a result I never looked anyone in the eye the entire time I was in Austin.

It would have been my dream to have an app that checked me in to three  services at once. And  now that  I have one, I can tell you what’s wrong with it:-)

First of all, it’s slow. V…e…r…..y slow. I could check in manually on Gowalla, Brightkite and Foursquare before Check.in finishes its magical place matching.

Second, it doesn’t give you the opportunity to post photos. Neither does Foursquare, but I loved doing that on Brightkite. And since I’m off to China, Korea and Singapore on Friday, wouldn’t you like to know where I’ve been and what it looks like?

Check.in also doesn’t give you an opportunity to choose whether you want to share to Twitter or Facebook, neither or both.

It doesn’t tell  you which friends are at a given place, either. Have you ever looked up from your laptop and thought to yourself, “where is everbody?” The underlying services will help you find your friends if you are looking for something to do, but Check.in won’t do that research for you.

It’s also no fun. It’s just a utilitarian app.  No badges, leaderboards, or things to put in your pack. Of course I don’t care about those, but many people like the gaming aspects of location-based services. [I take it back. I've been known to fight over the mayorship of Houston's or New Leaf with friends].

But the weakest part of Check.in is something that’s not at all Check.in’s fault: the underlying databases are all different. Some are user-entered, or power-user edited. Some are not. Therefore, the same location may have different names, or a location will be in one service and not the other.

All this can be corrected, because Check.in is in beta. But I thought since the pros like RWW’s Sarah Perez were weighing in, I’d offer my own opinion.

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May4

GeoLocation Is Hot, and Imperfect

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GeoLocation Is Hot, and Imperfect

GeoLocation is hot. How often do you sit in your car in a parking lot trying to check in on Gowalla or Foursquare as you arrive or leave?  I do that every day. I'm still not sure why, but I do.

I've been using both services for a year, and before them I used Brightkite.I knew why I liked Brightkite: I could go on a hike, take a photo of the trail, and post it to my profile and–if I wanted to–to my Twitter account. It was fun showing my Phoenix friends my Half Moon Bay life, and vice versa. For me, Brightkite was always dependable. Unfortunately, it lost momentum to Foursquare, which had a couple of cool components: you could become Mayor of a venue, and conversely you could oust someone else, you could add venues, and you could unlock badges.  Foursquare also has a leaderboard, so you can compete with friends for how many times you check in. (The bike messengers always win.)

Foursquare was followed by Gowalla, which has prettier badges and icons you can collect. Also a beautiful interface. Good design always gives a new product a leg up, although it's not enough by itself to create a market leader.

Like everyone else, I went crazy during SXSW trying to check in everywhere, so when the Check.in beta opened, I signed up for that, too. (At about this time, I turned off notifications to my Twitter and Facebook accounts from all the geo-location services, because my friends were complaining while I was trying to play pointless games.)

Check.in, an iPhone app, is Brightkite's attempt to return to the competition. With Check.in, you can check into  Brightkite, Foursquare, and Gowalla simultaneously. That is, you can check in simultaneously IF Check.in opens, WHEN it can find the venues on all three sites through its "magical place matching," and IF geo-location is working properly. I've had difficulty getting Check.in to start, to locate me accurately and then to connect to Foursquare, which seems to be having troubles of its own lately. And then the sites are often slightly different in naming conventions for the places listed on them. Not to mention the fact that Foursquare lets users add venues. I waste a lot of time getting all this stuff to work properly, and I have come to the conclusion that it's not worth the time I've invested. Remember, I'm a geek-to-human translator, not a pure geek, so I have different requirements for tech products and services.  Among other things, I would like them to be useful, as well as merely cool. And I'd like them to work dependably.

Here are my conclusions so far:
Most of the time, I am not looking for friends when I check in, so I probably shouldn't bother. After all, when I'm at Charlie's Nails, I don't really think anyone is going to join me. They probably won't join me at the dentist, either.
If I am looking for friends, or want to be found, geo-location is not enough of an improvement over Twitter to make it truly useful. What was wrong with "I'm at Houston's. Come meet me for a drink?"
My mayorships (of Starbucks, of my gym, even of Houston's), haven't gained me anything, since the brands haven't come on board yet. By the time they do, I will have been ousted from most mayorships by those bike messengers who are paid to run around town.
So geo-location remains, for me, a form of casual gaming. Nothing more. Prove me wrong. Where is the REAL value proposition?

Posted via email from Not Really Stealthmode

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Mar30

Foursquare, Facebook, Gowalla: Stranger Danger?

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Foursquare, Facebook, Gowalla: Stranger Danger?

I’ve been checking in on location-based services Foursquare for over a year, and added Gowalla about six months ago. As a result, I’ve become rude, opened my life to danger, and donated my personal privacy to research.

First let me tell you my circumstances. I’m a woman of a certain age, widowed, living alone. In theory, I am at a point in my life where I should be respected. But when I walk into a meeting, a bar, a gym, a restaurant, the event or person I am there to see can never get my attention. I spend the first few minutes staring at my iPhone, searching for the name of the place we’re in and thinking of a clever tip to enter in Foursquare. Then I switch to Gowalla, where I pick up and drop off squirrels and watering cans and barbells. When my work is done, I look up at my angry companion, smile, and ask forgiveness.

Typically, that person (the barista, the gym attendant, the client, the old friend, the policeman who just stopped me) thinks I am rude and/or nuts.

Not only is it rude to use geo-location services in front of others, but it is dangerous. I’m careful 1)never to give away my home address or exact location 2) never to friend someone on these services that I don’t already know 3)never to say I’m on vacation for a few days out of town. But it’s not hard to figure all that out, even if you are NOT my friend.  The data is there. While I choose not to live in fear of being robbed (two large barking dogs, one of whom has big teeth don’t hurt)m not everyone wants to spend $100 a month on dog food.

Last, my data will be mined. Last Friday night I went to the bachelor party of an old friend — part of the geek team of a tech company I co-founded ten years ago (it failed long ago). The corporate culture of the company was stellar, and the people have stayed connected, and this was the second bachelor party I’d been to. But the first was during a different era. Last night, normal people on Facebook with nothing to do on Friday night got to read about me pole dancing on a party bus, checking into a known night spot in Scottsdale, and then turning up in a strip club. Imagine if I were trying to get my old job at Intel back! (no way, Jose)

Worse, this will have future consequences. My data will be mined, as Tom Foremski points out, and from now on Facebook will serve me ads for Bourbon Street and Christie’s Cabaret.

Update: Jeremiah Owyang tells me Facebook itself is planning such a service:


The last time we updated the Privacy Policy, we included language describing a location feature we might build in the future. At that point, we thought the primary use would be to “add a location to something you post.” Now, we’ve got some different ideas that we think are even more exciting.

So, we’ve removed the old language and, instead added the concept of a “place” that could refer to a Page, such as one for a local restaurant. As we finalize the product, we look forward to providing more details, including new privacy controls.

So much for the privacy of 400,000,000 normal people who don’t want the world to know they are hanging out in strip clubs.

Worst of all, as I always point out, if I were still married and wanted to have an affair, there would be no chance. Friends, fans, followers, and family, noticing that I had left the grid for an hour, would be sending the ambulances and police cars.

On balance, this addiction I’ve developed to checking in has no more positive value than any other addiction. One of these days, I will kick it. But probably not today. I have to check in one more time at the Washington dog park, where I am the Mayor.

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