Like any good-standing member of the digit-rati, I’m bedazzled by new and shiny services. Blogs had their day in the spotlight, but now they’re un-sexy; Facebook was cool until everyone and their parents climbed on the bandwagon; and Twitter is suffering from being the most over-hyped Web 2.0 service ever.
This takes us to Foursquare. Unlike blogs, Facebook and Twitter, I’m not a Foursquare user and I don’t see that changing. Simply put, broadcasting my location has little appeal because the benefits aren’t compelling.
That said, I am fascinating with Foursquare. In particular, I’m intrigued by what is happening behind the scenes. Fueled by an army of users – 500,000 and counting – Foursquare is accumulating massive amounts of data about places, as well as comments from users about those places. At the same time, it is layering on value-added content from partners such as Zagat.
In the process, Foursquare is building a content-rich, location-driven application that could go in a number of different directions.
It could, for example, become a powerful local search engine. Foursquare could be the company to solve the location advertising “nut” that countless number of start-ups have been scrambling to tackle. It could become a lucrative data licensee, selling access to its API to companies looking to take advantage of its location-based data and content. Or it could become an e-commerce powerhouse.
A good example of Foursquare’s potential is a new service launched this week called FourWhere, which combines Foursquare’s data and content with the Google Maps API. Created by Sysomos (a client), FourWhere is a user-friendly way for Foursquare users and non-users to easily and quickly access relevant and valuable data. FourWhere is just one example of how Foursquare could evolve.
In the meanwhile, Foursquare will continue to encourage its users to build its database – the ultimate game of crowdsourcing. According to GigaOm’s Liz Gannes, Foursquare has had 15.5-million check-ins and awarded 1 million badges since its launch.
Thoughts on Foursquare « Ed Lee's Blogging Me Blogging You
[...] on Foursquare Last week, Mark Evans and I chatted over email about the merit (or otherwise) of the location based service Foursquare. Since then, there have been some interesting stats and [...]
I agree that it seems helpful in many ways, but I wont be a user anytime soon. I’m like you, telling people my ever location can go very very wrong.
I think its a privacy issue, and anything good always gets the attention of people ready to use it for bad.