As you might have discovered in previous posts, I’m not a big Foursquare fan.

My lack of enthusiasm has much to do with the fact it doesn’t seem to provided much value other than the “thrill” of getting badges. TThat’s not enough to go through the trouble of broadcasting my location. Granted, Foursquare appears to be getting better as it makes deals with content players and corporate partners but I still don’t see enough “meat”.

A service that has a lot more appeal while offering many of the same features as Foursquare is Yelp. Until recently, I hadn’t been much of a Yelp user but the more I user it, the more value delivers. For example, I’m visiting New York this weekend and despite doing some research, I’m unprepared when it comes to knowing where to go and what to eat.

This is where Yelp comes into play, particularly when using the iPhone app. By using the search or nearby features, Yelp makes it easy to find places to eat, visit, drink, have coffee, banks, etc. There’s also reviews from users, and, get this, the ability to check in when visiting places.

The biggest challenge facing Foursquare is it needs to move into places where there’s already strong competition. The fact Foursquare has built its foothold on being able the check-in may not be enough of a differentiator to fend off players such as Yelp, Facebook and Google that are moving into the location-based market.

Foursquare’s growing popularity has always been puzzling to me because the original value proposition was so one-dimensional. And despite Foursquare’s continued growth, the reality is it still doesn’t have the traction that everyone expected when it burst onto the scene.

To me Foursquare feels like a lot like Friendster, which had its day in the sun before becoming a second-tier social network.