Facebook Takes On FourSquare 220
An anonymous reader writes "Facebook Places is similar to FourSquare. You can go to places, 'check-in' so your friends know you're there, rate them, comment on them, and generally spew your opinions all over the internet as fast as your fingers can hit the keys. It's an obvious attempt by the company to muscle in on FourSquare's block, casting its influence ever further over us all." Now the question is, who at FourSquare turned down the offer, and how badly are they crapping their pants?
Four Square (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Four Square (Score:5, Insightful)
Question about Foursquare (Score:5, Insightful)
I know what people do with it, but why do they do it?
Foursquare? Never heard of it. (Score:2, Insightful)
Easy Answer (Score:5, Insightful)
I know what people do with it, but why do they do it?
The same could be said of that post you just posted. I know what you do on Slashdot but why do you do it?
And I think the answer is very simple: communication with a nominal reward. People love debate and communication and giving advice and the like. Just because FourSquare focuses on restaurants and eateries doesn't make it any less pointless than our banter and talk of tech here on Slashdot. It simply has a different target market. It might be bigger, it might be smaller but it's something evidently.
"I'm Mayor of the 1st St. Chipotle" vs "I just got a +5 Insightful on this post!" Simple meaningless reward that means something to the user.
Think of it like a game. Personally I think it's worthless but I wouldn't consider myself very keen on the internet if I didn't realize what it does effectively and how it appeals to the users. Of course that means eyeballs and of course Facebook wants their users to lock in and stay. Maybe they'll make a native FourSquare to Facebook to appeal to that market?
Re:Foursquare was always missing that one thing (Score:3, Insightful)
I use foursquare and it can be quite helpful when in a new town for a night of partying.
And now we know why regular slashdotters don't use it...
Re:Four Square (Score:4, Insightful)
Still as much of a pain as it is to block all the annoying features of facebook, it becomes a useful tool in the end.
Re:Question about Foursquare (Score:4, Insightful)
because it's OCD addictive like Farmville for a few weeks until you get tired of it
few months ago Robert Scoble wrote a column about Four Square, Blippy and a few other services where he actually took it seriously.
but it's fairly useful. i found a few lunch places due to foursquare reviews
in the end it's one of those kiddy everyone wants to know what i'm doing internet thingies. i've noticed my soon to be 3 year old son acts out when he wants attention. same thing with all these new location services. a lot of kids didn't get enough attention so now they are trying to get it via the internet.
Re:Four Square (Score:2, Insightful)
Agreed. That's how I got into it - had a baby and most of my family live a six hour drive away. By posting updates to FB, I'm not inundated with phone calls of, "how's the baby?" or "send more pictures!"
Re:Four Square (Score:5, Insightful)
Someone should totally open up a bar for programmers. Just call it the Progress Bar.
That's more like a bar for the IT workers that install software on corporate computers all day.
All the cool programmers drink at the Foo Bar
Re:No use for user feedback? (Score:3, Insightful)
>>Do you also avoid consumer reviews of products when you go to buy something? That seems like a bad idea. It seems equally silly to refuse to look at ratings of something like a restaurant you might want to try for the first time.
There's Zagat, Metro Times, and hundres of other resources for that.
>>Even just the fact a lot of people have checked into a place means it must be decent.
Oh, no no no no. That's completely wrong. I assume that people check into McDonald's and Starbucks all the time. And what's the demographic for Foursquare? Younger people? The ones who think all corporations are evil? That saving a single dollar is a make-it-or-break-it proposition? People that think they deserve everything for merely having been born? Not the same demographic, and thus very unlikely to have the same tastes. Your statement is kind of like, "Even just the fact that a lot of people voted for him means that he must be decent." The masses have no taste, especially the younger masses.
Re:@Facebook (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Foursquare and offers (Score:1, Insightful)
The only thing Facebook hasn't tried to buy is 4chan.
Watch, now that I said that... the next hot new product == facebook.com/b/
Acquisition of 4chan could only increase the intellectual value of Failbook.
Re:Four Square (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Four Square (Score:5, Insightful)
As someone who ostensibly cares about technology, being here on Slashdot, why would you not be interested in hearing about geolocation applications, what they can do, and why people are using them?
Is it that you're "too cool" for anything that might involve (or even *EASE*, for those of us who are a bit awkward) social interaction, even if it is one of the more interesting recent developments in consumer tech? Take a look at all of the "Augmented Reality" type apps out there, and tell me there's not some interesting technological potential in them. The idea that you can have a device in your pocket, pull it out, and within 30 seconds be looking for "cool shit to do near where I'm standing," is amazing, because if it's built up enough to have data, you're going to start seeing more and more of the cool local shit that never gets much advertising, but is still really cool to experience - think little local restaurants that don't advertise, but have a rabid local following - wouldn't it be neat to be able to find those places easily, no matter where you are, instead of another bland steak at Friday's, because "Well, I recognize the sign, and I don't know this town."
There are obvious privacy and security concerns relevant to these kinds of apps - those are interesting technological challenges. The apps themselves are a really fascinating application of multiple technologies in a novel way. So really, the question is: why would you NOT be interested to hear a bit about the apps, and how they're being used, if you're interested enough in technology to be here reading this stuff?
Who turned the offer down...? (Score:3, Insightful)
Probably the same person that had decided that no one uses text messages anymore and supporting non-smartphones is not worth their time and non-smartphones supposedly no longer exist.
As it is I migrated to BrightKite a long time ago because their interface just worked better and I was never really interested in the gaming aspect of Foursquare. To me it's just a social proprioception tool.
My use case in case anyone wants to know. I have a tight knit group of friends and for 90% of my checkins only they get the updates. Conversly, I only get their alerts sent to me. Where this is useful, for me, is if I say go to the mall on Saturday.
*I check-in at the mall cause I need new socks.
*Fifteen minutes later friend A checks in at the mall
*This check-in generates an alert which gets SMS'd to my phone "A has checked in where you are!"
*I sms Friend A : "Hey I'm at the mall too. Why don't we grab lunch at Restaurant X?"
There, with little effort I now have a coincidental meet-up with a friend over lunch; this has significantly made my trip to the mall more enjoyable than just hunting for a good deal on socks. Silly, perhaps, but for all you know it maybe a friend I don't get to see that much offline.
Re:Four Square (Score:4, Insightful)
Slashdot would be the worst possible indicator of a technology which would be successful in the future.
If Slashdot could predict successful tech, we'd all be using ogg-vorbis, the Year of the Linux Desktop would have happened by now, and Apple wouldn't have sold 3+ million iPads. :-P
We see technology through an entirely different lens than the consumer public. And we're have really bad tunnel vision.
Re:Easy Answer (Score:3, Insightful)
"I'm Mayor of the 1st St. Chipotle" vs "I just got a +5 Insightful on this post!" Simple meaningless reward that means something to the user.
Ah, but there's a difference here .... A Foursquare Reward is merely a consequence of pressing a button on your phone when you are in the same place often. Anybody can do this. A Slashdot +5 Insightful is (usually) a sign that you've used your brain to assemble and share a coherent thought, and that others found it interesting enough that they want others to see it, too.
And what would you rather be known for -- Having interesting ideas that get read by thousands of smart people, or being the guy that eats at Taco Bell five times a week? What is more "meaningful"?
Re:Four Square (Score:3, Insightful)
Also this isn't how they're being used, this is just coverage of a new implementation, and bad coverage about it since it's just overblown hysterics about how Facebook is going to end our lives and take over DHS and the Eurozone.
Re:Easy Answer (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a pretty rare sight to actually see something Insightful modded as such.
Re:Four Square (Score:2, Insightful)
You're an idiot. You just summed up the entirety of human technological innovation, and discarded it with an offhand, "Your life was fine before you had it, you won't ever miss it."
See, when you say things like this, you sound like an idiot, and nobody takes idiots seriously when they state their firmly held opinions about things they've clearly never bothered to think about.
Re:All of us? (Score:1, Insightful)
"I never used Foursquare, because it reminds of the game the retarded kids have to play at recess."
Yes, because any activity involving even the slightest bit of exercise is only for the "retarded".
You missed the point. Before the PCification of elementary schools, it was possible to play keep away, smear the queer, some other violent games whose name escapes me. Catholic grade school was like a war zone during recess but only fun. Every game was phsyically demanding. So when everything got banned the girls were like, "Well, can we still play 4 square?". "Uhm, yeah, 4 square is OK."
You want to know the problem with all this stuff? (Score:3, Insightful)
You.
i.e. People.
The technologies may be cool. The potential may be amazing. But you know what? They have to make it for the average person. And that means the lowest common denominator.
You think you're going to be able to find that little local restaurant among all the shit that people think is wonderful when the masses arrive in droves on those systems? No. What you're going to see is Mcdonalds, Starbucks, TGI Fridays etc etc because they are the ones paying to be on the first lines your screen when you search for nearby restaurants or coffee.
So, if you're using Ovi Maps find places features on your phone just now and finding all these cool places, enjoy it while you can. Give it a year or two and there will be a hundred million other punters insisting that the starbucks on the corner make the best coffee in town.
What makes some of us jaded is not the technology. It's people.