Comments on: Antisocial Location Apps

By: Todd Lyden

Todd Lyden — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 02:48:00 +0000

So, you want something for nothing?

By: Courtenay Bird

Courtenay Bird — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 04:32:44 +0000

I was also, like Jim, an early Foursquare user (beta team ATL!) and I use Foursquare very actively when traveling. However, as I responded to a TC post about check-in fatigue, I rarely ever use Foursquare in my day-to-day life. Why not? Well, my day-to-day life is, relative to traveling, pretty boring… home, work, grocery store, bank, etc. There’s no purpose for me or interest for others in me checking into those places.

That’s problem 1 — sure Foursquare is great for organizing SXSW flash mobs, but it has no utility for daily existence for most people. Problem 2 Jim addresses… the action of having to check-in manually everywhere. Perhaps a compromise to the battery drain would be a 1-click check-in app (perhaps http://check.in will eventually do this?).

But going back to problem 1. I agree with what you’re getting at… the key to mainstreaming location-based services is in the B2C/brand loyalty realm. The example I always use: I would take a moment to check in at CVS if Foursquare would then tell me that I can get a better deal at RiteAid on my favorite usual purposes as determined by Blippy.

That’s an invasion of privacy that I would welcome.

By: Jim Kerr

Jim Kerr — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:31:13 +0000

As it is, no one can really “follow” me on Foursquare or Gowalla unless I friend them. So the default of those apps are that they are anti-social. I think that what you find is a decreasing circle of trust. I trust Twitter to my random musigs, I trust Facebook to stuff my friends and colleagues would see, and I only trust Foursquare with close friends and family. In that dynamic is value, for sure.

I think the issue is one of consumer convenience. I was a very early and am still an active user of Foursquare. I became a superuser on the first day they announced those badges. Today, I find checking in annoying. What I REALLY want is the “anti check-in.” Basically, I want the damn location app to follow me everywhere and then I only have to interact with it when I don’t want to have it show where I am. A check out rather than a check in, if you will. I would love that.

The issue with this world isn’t software or even privacy–it’s hardware. GPS units absolutely suck battery life. If you were to have the always on Google Lattitude version of Foursquare, your phone would have a two hour battery life. I don’t see this being solved any time soon, so I have pushed check in and location-based social services way down the line in terms of mass acceptance.

By: Dino

Dino — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 12:22:30 +0000

totally agree with you about the future of anti social location services, and that is a great way to think about it. though i think there is a place for the game and friend locator element at the core of foursquare (maybe for hyper social twenty year olds).