Foursquare has arrived (a Foursquare Halloween costume).
Before I go make my concluding remarks about Foursquare, I want to first mention another development I learned of this week, very relevant to our class (not necessarily brand new, but this was reported on two weeks ago by TechCrunch):
Foursquare is implementing more and more peer-production! Very active Foursquare users can earn the label “Superuser,” made up of three levels – each allowing greater access to participate in the development of certain aspects of the site.
- Level 1: Users are able to edit venues (including names and cross streets), mark places as “closed,” and note duplicates.
- Level 2 (added two weeks ago): Users are able to merge venues themselves when there are duplicates.
- Level 3 (not added yet): Likely to contain elements such as adding badges and policing other users.
According to TechCrunch: “Shortly after the group of users got upgraded to Level 2, founder Crowley noted that ’we had some 2000+ duplicate venues in the system 30 mins ago. We’re [now] down to 400.’ He followed up shortly after that noting, ‘it took less than 2 hours for users to go thru 90% of our merge queue.”
Benkler (and the new media elite) would be proud. This seems like an efficient use of user participation for a start-up with only four employees. With users willing to help edit and produce Foursquare content, Foursquare themselves can focus on bigger issues.
Now some concluding remarks on my adventures with Foursquare:
Last week I wondered whether or not I was going to continue in Foursquaring after this travelogue ended. I’ve decided that I will most likely keep my account active, but will probably stop checking in for now. There are two main reasons for this:
- Access to Technology: Texting from my phone is not that efficient. I found that I need to have the exact name of the venue I’m at in order for my check-in to go through (whereas if you were using the iPhone app, the venues are listed on the screen for you). For example, I tried to check-in to “Second Chance,” and didn’t receive the automatic text back confirming it was received. I wasn’t sure why, so I tried again with “Second Chance Saloon” – which went through. The text seems like it must match perfectly to how the venue is listed on the website. Personally, I don’t want to be spending time trying to figure out these texting intricacies when I’m out with friends.
This does make me pine for an iPhone though. If I had one, this wouldn’t be an issue – the names of the venues are already listed in front of you. I understand that Foursquare is the meant to be played on an iPhone or Android, and from what I saw on a friend’s iPhone, it’s a really user-friendly app. Attracting iPhone users has also been a great way of drawing in early adapters and generating buzz that could spread to users slower to adapt to new technology. But for now, most people don’t have iPhones, so this will most likely hinder mass-user registration.
- Real Friends Vs. Web Friends: Out of my 6 Foursquare friends, there is only one that I hang out with and speak to on a regular basis. Three are friends from college that I run into once in a while, but I rarely interact with offline, and another is “a friend of a friend” that I only see when our mutual friend is around. The last is someone who I got to sign up, but she hasn’t used her account at all. This breakdown made me relate back to our class discussion on the subject of friendship – “real friends vs. web friends.”
Because Foursquare merges online with offline, this issue is relevant, even more so than on Facebook and Twitter. I personally don’t want acquaintances from college and friends of friends (aka web friends) to know of my whereabouts. But, if my 10 best friends were on it? People I see almost every weekend, or talk to multiple times a week? I would, without a doubt, be a Foursquare addict.
A few other things I’d like to see from Foursquare:
- Expand beyond nightlife: Socializing in an urban environment doesn’t always revolve around drinking and eating. There are plenty of other ways people interact – museums, galleries, parks, concerts, movies, etc. They’ve already mentioned that they were in the process of creating more arts/culture and entertainment badges, so I’m sure this will eventually take place.
- Make “pings” asymmetrical: There is an option to choose whether you’d like to receive pings (check-ins) from a friend, but I would find it helpful to have the option to send check-ins only to certain people – “customized check-ins” – allowing more control over who you are sending your check-ins to (this option may already exist on the iPhone app, but I’m not sure).
- Where you’re going to be: I would imagine that check-ins often create missed connections. Someone might receive a check-in from a friend, that person would make his/her way over to the bar/restaurant to say hello, but by the time he/she got there, the friend has already left. Check-ins could be more useful for meet-ups and socializing if they planned ahead of time – having the option of choosing between “where you are” and “where you’re going to be” would be a valuable development.
In my first travelogue, I asked whether Foursquare is going to have a lasting effect in the Web 2.0 world, or if it’s just another short-lived social media fad.
While I noted my own personal hesitations above, the service seems to be promising a lot in the way of near-future developments. As I discussed in my last post, Foursquare has the potential to combine marketing with consumer engagement both online and offline, create profitable business partnerships, and has received the stamp of approval from early adapters. Plus it’s fun! I strongly believe there is much potential here for Foursquare to eventually become a major player in the social media world, but only if it first solves the problem of its limited user base.
Possibly Relevant Posts:
- “Checking In” To Foursquare (6) | Alison
- Foursquare’d: Week 1 (2) | Alison
- What’s It Worth? Foursquare and Business Opportunity (5) | Alison
6 Comments
Yeah, I feel ya on the technology aspect, if you don’t have an iPhone or a smartphone (i believe you told me last time that they were coming up with a Blackberry app?) it would not be nearly as fun, texting them every time would get tedious instead of just updating your whereabouts. I can see that you listed one your suggestions as expanding beyond nightlife, I understand that, but so far I have to say that given all the other social networking tools out there (Twitter, Facebook) and how they are also available on mobile technology, the ludic aspect (and the ridiculous badges like the “bender”) badge is what intrigues me the most…
I have to admit that I haven’t done anything with my Foursquare account since I signed up after your first post. Granted I have an iPod Touch where the application is available, I feel like it would still be a hassle seeing as how I would require WiFi to connect and update. And I just haven’t taken the time to text any of the restaurants/bars I’ve been to because texting just isn’t as intuitive as the application itself, on a device, would be.
Although it is somewhat lackluster for those of us without a supported device, I do agree that this seems like a really good endeavor with a lot of potential. In fact, I’m still interested in pursuing it at some point to see what kind of badges I can get, I will just have to wait to do it on a better platform. Or hopefully more venues will start to incorporate WiFi to allow further participation.
I made a Foursquare account about a week before we started this Travelogue, only to find that, like you pointed out, it’s much better if you have a fancy cell phone. I haven’t used it since (hell, I don’t even like TwitPic-ing on my crappy phone).
I think a lot of online tools are more easily used by “smart phones,” creating a bit of a social gap. If I didn’t sit in front of a computer all day, I wouldn’t update these social sites as often as I do because I don’t have a mobile device that makes it easy for me to do so. This might explain why Twitter is used by mostly older, upper middle-class people (rather than teens, who dominated Myspace back in its hay day), they can afford nicer phones that allow for micro-blogging on the go. I’d assume that the same could go for Foursquare.
To me the question remains whether they can turn your frustration about not having RL-friends on the service into a marketing scheme. Moreover, to what degree is this effort of theirs damaged by the fact not all of your friends have jumped on the smartphone bandwagon (yet).
Very good analysis.
I really like your discussion of how Foursquare merges offline with online – and I think that in many cases, the adoption of a new technology or gadget is dependent on which of your friends have adopted it. (For example, I never would have joined twitter if my closest friends weren’t also already using it.) How do you think this (four)squares with the goals of the game – is it designed to help you meet new people, or build relationships with the friends you already have?
If Foursquare could swiftly take off with a young and urban demographic, people who are already sending Facebook updates saying “At Beauty Bar. Worst caipirinha ever”, how well do you think this would play in less urban areas? As Foursquare is now, proximity of venues to each other seems to be part of the appeal.
I think Foursquare could be highly transportable regardless of the density of venues, because I see it as less a game of venue hopping or some sort of location scavenger hunt, but as another manifestation of social oneupmanship– and oneupmanship isn’t isolated by geography. I think we’ve all heard people say (and with no small amount of pride) “Oh, I’m a regular at such-and-such place, they totally know me there”– they may find that flashing a “Mayor” badge better drives that point home.