FourSquare rewards users with various badges depending on their activity.

When I first heard about Twitter in 2007, my initial reaction was something along the lines of “That is the silliest idea I have ever heard of.”  Time has proven me wrong and I was determined not to make the same mistake with the newest hot trend in the social web: GeoLocation based social networks like FourSquare, BrightKite and Gowalla.  Like Twitter, these networks took off at the uber-hip SXSW conference in Austin Texas and like Twitter, the tech world can hardly stop talking about them.   I was leery, but determined to see if all the hype is worth it.  For the last few weeks I have been dutifully living the GeoLocation lifestyle and am ready to report on my initial findings.

The first question, as with Twitter, is, “Why would you ever want to do this?” Well, to a certain extent we already do.  We share on Twitter, Facebook and via text where we are.  We invite friends and look for them. These services are a great way to meet up with people, particularly at large events like SXSW (where they first really began to take off).  So why not use the ubiquitous GPS and map applications on our smart-phones to add some clarity and structure to this type of interaction. It is fun to declare loyalty to your spots, and advertise businesses you care about! That local coffee shop? No longer let it languish in the shadow of the nearby Starbuck’s – shout it out!

There are also non-social applications to these services. They provide a way for you internally to keep track of where you have been.  This seems rather minor, but at the end of the month when going over your credit card bills how often do you wonder where a particular bill you don’t recognize came from? Check Foursquare and you’ll find out where you were on that day and rather easily narrow it down.  Secondly, Foursquare is experimenting with a sort of location based wiki at each venue.  You can leave tips for other Foursquare users who go there (try the Pad Thai and avoid the tofu) as well as notes to yourself (make an appointment to get a tune up next time I’m at the gas station).

Most of the utility and business-models of these services are relatively untapped, but they are simply fun ways to connect with friends and places in real life.  I will say one of the real advantages for nerds like myself is that they are definitely an encouragement to get out of the house and explore new places.  It is fun to check into a new place and find out what others have thought about it.  Also, you may find places you did not know that existed right in your area.  It is a very quickly growing field and it will be very interesting to see where we end up (both literally and figuratively).

Still, there are a number of hurdles that these networks will need to overcome if they are going to really take off.  As long as Foursquare is a game without any real consequences, there is no real motivation (other than obsession) to game the system.  However, as Foursquare monetizes and business start to offer real life rewards for being the mayor, people trying to game the system will become much more of a problem. How to define what constitutes a ‘check in’ and how long before you can check-in again?  Also, as the network grows, they will need to find better ways to fix broken/duplicate venues, spam-tips and other such pests of large networks.

For right now, it is fun to vie for dominance at your local venues.  Hopefully the creativity that pushed these networks will continue to increase their utility as well as their fun.

Image via Mariss007