There’s been a lot of publicity surrounding Foursquare lately, both good and bad. Having used it for a month now, I’m unleashing my point of view.
Why is it good?
Helping you find venues – If you’re driving around, or walking around trying to locate a business, open up the Foursquare app and you can view the business and the map, even without having to search in most cases.
Making businesses focus on people – Foursquare gives you the ability to have “specials” if you’re a retail business. This has provided an opportunity for many brands to put the focus back on their customers. Check in at Starbucks and get a free coffee, check in at the local pub and get 2 drinks for the price of 1. Considering you’ve usually got your phone with you at these venues, claiming (and offering) specials is easy. Foursquare is about the customer, not the business.
Find your friends in same venue – Going to a concert or a restaurant and wondering if your friends are there already? Foursquare shows you who’s currently checked in at that venue.
Travel – The app is awesome for travelling to a foreign town or country. Seeing things to do in the area you’re in, or tips for that exact venue, meal suggestions, ways to get more for your money, all by real people who have been before you. Like Lonely Planet in real time.
Integrate with other applications – Foursquare has an API, which means software developers can take advantage of their location tools and implement applications that complement or replace Foursquare.
Number of users – There is over 2 million users, with over 6 million venues as of last month. With approximately 30% growth per month, Foursquare isn’t going away any time soon. More users = more useful platform.
Getting users into the real world – Foursquare isn’t a way to hide on the Internet, it’s bringing the online into the offline world. Twitter and Foursquare are actually causing people who would have never met, to socialise in real life. This to me is a great thing.
Why is it bad?
Privacy – There’s a lot of discussion over the fact that you’re letting people know where you are. There are websites that announce when you’re not home, so thieves can take advantage. In my opinion this doesn’t really make it any easier for thieves. Thieves have been operating for a lot longer than the Internet existed. Maybe this helps them, but the only burglaries I ever encountered were before Foursquare and Facebook existed.
Constant updates – Foursquare shares information with your Foursquare friends on the website. The applications allow you to share check-ins with Twitter and Facebook. Some people have written off Foursquare for this reason. When I check in, I make an active choice not to share outside of the Foursquare website (unless it’s something I would have updated separately anyway). If your friend stream is bombarding you with annoying updates, I’m sure that goes further than just Foursquare. A friend on Foursquare should really be a friend that you’re ok having them know where you are (if you so choose).
Round up
Personally I think this has a lot of promise and could be moulded into something that is a real benefit to most smartphone users. Like most things, dislike starts from a lack of knowledge and it would be a shame to see Foursquare disappear, or just be labelled as another “thing for teenagers”.
I would expect Foursquare to start rolling out more functionality in the coming months too. I’m looking forward to it.
Tags: foursquare, socialmedia
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Adam Fitzgerald, Perth Web News. Perth Web News said: RT Adam Fitzgerald: Foursquare – The verdict on the location-based service. http://goo.gl/fb/d8gNx [...]
I was one of those people who wrote off Foursquare because a few people on Twitter were abusing their feed. Now that I’ve joined up, and I’m using the service, I see things from both sides.