So over the past couple months I’ve started using the phenomenon known as Foursquare. I think this was originally due to boredom if nothing else, but slowly all of my friends have been joining this technology wave. I think that it’s a really cool idea for being able to keep track of where your friends are if you have so many that it’s a difficult task. I typically know where mine are if they are anywhere nearby, but hey, maybe one day I’ll go to check in and see someone next door that I didn’t know was there.
What I really like about Foursquare is that it encourages users to go out and try new places. It’s always great to have a little adventure. I mean we all get stuck in our ruts of going to the same places to eat and/or drink. With Foursquare, sometimes you just want to go somewhere new to get the points bonus. It’s not like the points actually DO anything, but nowadays if you tell someone you’ll give them useless points to do something, they are ALL about some useless points!
I also think that the mayorship idea is a cool concept, especially the businesses that award their mayors bonuses. Starbucks does this and I’ve ran into a handful of places in Richmond that also offer benefits to their mayors. It’s a great way to reward loyal customers. They are frequenting the establishment as well as inadvertently advertising it to all of their Foursquare friends.
If there was one thing I would add to Foursquare though, it’s that I wish there were more badges and challenges for all cities and not just the larger cities like D.C. and New York. I certainly don’t have all the badges yet or anything, but I have noticed it getting harder and harder to get anything new and it’s due to lack of availability.
Overall, it’s a cool concept. I think the ideas for this kind of application started back with Loopt and other friend tracking networks. They were useful, but Foursquare made it fun.
