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I used foursquare for about 3 weeks. I comment on HN because I want people to start recognizing my name. I post to twitter because I want a large follower base
by marknutter 16y ago
I used foursquare for about 3 weeks. I comment on HN because I want people to start recognizing my name. I post to twitter because I want a large follower base I can bounce ideas off and tell about things I'm working on. I answer questions on quora because there are a lot of wealthy, influential people on there and I want them to know I'm a developer trying to make his way in this world. The point is, I need to get something back from these services if I'm going to dedicate my time using them.
Foursquare gave me nothing in return. There's no value in being a mayor, and because theres only one mayor per location it's nearly impossible to maintain. None of my friends in town use it, so the potential value of finding out where my friends are and what they are up to at any moment is nonexistent.
I would use Foursquare if it would tell me if my buddy is going to the gym without him having to do anything. I would use it if it would actually keep track of the number of times I've bought a coffee at my favorite coffee shop so I don't have to keep messing around with those stupid punch cars that I lose every other week.
The first location based service that solves either or both of those problems will be the first one I use consistently.
- fleitz 16y agoI think you're on to something here, I know there are a lot of utilities to consolidate loyalty cards, but tying together loyalty cards with social could be huge. Stamps and cards for the old fogeys, QR codes for technophiles. When you redeem your free coffee it posts to facebook/twitter, etc. More advertising for the business, less cards for the consumer, and invaluable insight into consumer purchasing.
- fossuser 16y agoFacebook places does this through their deals system, but you still have to manually check in. The only location service I know of that is always on is google latitude, but it's accuracy isn't always perfect.
- luckyland 16y agoGreat comment. Foursquare harnesses the ubiquity of Twitter, Groupon, and Yelp with practically zero benefits in return for its usage. I really don't get it, either.
- narsimham 16y agopersonally, i find foursquare, gowalla, and the like criminally useless. the aggregation of all this location data and the sum result of either sharing your location with your friends or seeing an absolutely barebones of the establishments around you, without any context, doesn't result in a useful experience for me, at all.