Foreca.st is a new iPhone application that seems to be very similar to Foursquare. However, the key difference between the two products is that Foursquare is about ‘where you are now’ and Foreca.st is about ‘where you are going’.
Apart from that everything seems to be very similar. All of the basics are exactly the same and even the check-in idea hasnt changed at all.
I wish more companies would start to think about ways to use all the checkin information collected on Foursquare. Heat Tracker is a great example of this in practice, as it allows users to find place near them that have a crowd before you get there.
Look for places that are “Heating Up” or “On Fire” (which reminds me of NBA Jam). Heat Tracker lets you see who is in a certain venue or even how many males compared to females.
Now you will never be in a bar alone again! Download Heat Tracker here.
Foursquare has just announced that they will be translating their service into 5 new languages: Spanish, French, German, Italian and Japanese.
This announcement happened at the Mobile World Congress that is happening in Barcelona.
It is great to see that Foursquare is starting to focus their efforts on the major languages throughout the world and cater to them. I would have liked to see them open up in China, but I’m sure that is only a matter of time.
Foursquare partnered with CNN to release two World Cup badges.
It was announced this Tuesday that the World Cup and Foursquare had teamed up to release a special World Cup badge on the geo-location network. The announcement came at the Mashable Media Summit in New York by Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley and Adam Ostrow, editor-in-chief of Mashable tech blog. In partnership with CNN the two new badges have been released and are awaiting the fans to achieve them.
The first badge is the South Africa Explorer which can be achieved if you travel to South Africa for the World Cup and announce it to your friends. Can’t make it? No worries, the second badge, Super Fan, is meant for those of us that attend an archived World Cup viewing party. Currently there are 100 parties registered, perhaps one is in your area and the Super Fan badge is within your grasp.
This is not entirely new for the location based startup. In the past Foursquare has partnered with Bravo, SXSW, and various other conventions and special events for specific badges. The marketing and business opportunities for this type of location based marketing is still untapped and being explored by those brave enough to try it out.
In an interesting commented based on a user submitted question, Crowley stated that Foursquare is closely guarding the creation of badges despite the request from small businesses to create their own badges. The purpose for this is to prevent the dilution of the badge opportunities and keep the value high for all users.
Didn’t get the chance join the Boyscouts? Perhaps you didn’t have time to be part of the Girlscouts. Acquiring those merit badges was a matter of
honor. Having them placed on your person meant something. Whether you helped an old woman across the street, got a cat out of the tree, or sold the most boxes of cookies, the merit badges were a matter or pride.
For those of us geeked out enough to challenge one another in Foursquare, we can relive the need for merit badges. Foursquare is the location based application that geotags your location and announces it to others both on the mobile app and on your social networks. The more you use it, the more points you collect, the more virtual badges you can earn. It sounds simple, maybe even nerdy, but it’s a reality and many of us are using it. It’s become so popular that marketers are finding way to tap into the use of geo-tagging services like Foursquare and make them mean something to the businesses they represent.
Well now instead of relying on virtual badges, you can earn real world Foursquare badges and get your geek on when you put them on your clothing. Nerdmeritbadges.com has been given the nod to sell the embroidered pieces to the public so that they can stake their claim on the number of badges they’ve earned. Again, it’s a matter of honor and pride.
Most recently a site popped up that has Foursquare users questioning whether their use of the application is putting themselves and their home in jeopardy. Those unfamiliar with Foursquare, it’s a geo-locating application that pinpoints your location and notifies the Foursquare community and your social networks where you are. For example if you’re at the local grocery store, you can Foursquare it, users earn points that translate into badges depending on how often and where you check-in, and ultimately people are able to see the types of places you like to visit. On the other hand, it’s made cyber stalking that much easier.
A recent site called PleaseRobMe.com has highlighted the risk of sharing your locations for the most paranoid of the bunch. It stands to reason that anyone can know anything about you if they really wanted to, with or without Foursquare. Though the site appears to be a joke, the seriousness in which someone’s property could truly be in jeopardy is something that is not easily overlooked.
Illegal? Does this site incite people to do harm to another? Some say that if you choose to share your location you deserve what happens, but that seems a very narrow minded point of view.
So tell me, where do you stand? Do you use geo-locating services? Do sites like PleaseRobMe.com exist as a wake up call or as a way to incite theft?
Less than a month ago, FourSquare, a location based social network commonly used to post your location on Twitter, announced that they were getting an update every second from their users. So that works out at around 600,000 updates per week. Not bad for a small start-up. However, in less than thirty days their user rates have doubled.
They shared with the world yesterday, via a tweet that they were getting over a million updates per week. 1.2 million to be exact.
That is a phenomenal increase in user ratings which most companies can only dream of achieving. I’ve noticed this increase myself on Twitter and am strongly considering using the service. After all, it’s more fun than our standard geo-location tweets, more social and have cool games to go along with it!
Foursquare and other geo-location based apps are becoming extremely popular. There are two sides, one for the user, and the benefits for the business, and when working hand in hand, create an extremely positive relationship. Foursquare allows users to check-in where they are at and race with other local users to become “Mayor” of their location. Based on mobile devices it makes it easy to move around town and check-in as you go.
Most recently users have been looking for a rich desktop experience, something that Foursquare does not offer on their site. They offer options to change settings and such, but not a way to claim your location. Now that has changed thanks to a small development company that’s created FoursquareX. The desktop application, for Mac only, is an OSX based application that allows you to check-in but also allows you to see where your friends are based on an interactive map. Reading deeper into the way this application works, users will be happy to know that it offers the following beneficial features:
Take a look if you’re a Foursquare fan and let us know what you think. So far I’m happy with it, and hope to see some type of port to the actual Foursquare app on the mobile because I can see this becoming a fully functional aspect of the mobile app.
Foursquare hit the streets running at this weekend’s SXSW. It not only allows your mobile to connect to Twitter (and therefore your followers), but it ads a few things that Twitter doesn’t have. Namely the ability to (actually) find your Twitter friends when in the same place at the same time, in real life.
Instead of ambiguous “I’m at Nino’s Pizza” or “I’m over by the fountain at Seaworld” directions, how about a map?
Foursquare was built by the guys who made Dodgeball, that now-dead Google app that became quite the underground hit. Basically, Foursquare works with Google Maps and Twitter, together.
First, you tell the app where you are (text/SMS to 50500) and then post shouts based on your location and what you’re doing. Looking for friends or places to meet is easy (thanks to Google Maps, which auto-centers on where you 50500′d). All of the friends near you (who’re using Foursquare) can be seen on the map too.
The other half of Foursquare is the “game.” Every time you check in, you earn points. Interesting check-ins (like check-ins with details) gives you badges. Points eventually ad up to extra features that unlock as you use the app.
It’s a fresh and innovative approach to Twitter-finding, for sure. I suspect that it’s users will be limited in number (since it’s appeal is rather narrow), but cult-like zealots in their fanaticism for it.
