Facebook Takes On FourSquare

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?

Comments

@Facebook

[doroshjt]

@Facebook has just ousted @Foursquare as the mayor of useless crap.

Four Square

[ojintoad]

If Facebook takes over an app I never heard of or ever will use, and some blogger tries to tenuously relate it to the totalitarian state taking over our lives, and a tree falls on a mime in the woods, and I go on using email and ignoring Facebook like I know so many other people do, do I care?

Re:Four Square

[e065c8515d206cb0e190]

You cared enough to comment on it apparently.

Re:Four Square

[BStroms]

Facebook has its uses. Especially for those with a large family living all over the country. It's an efficient way to keep up with what's going on in their lives. Other than the occasional snide comment made in response to someone else's post, that's really all I use it for. Granted being a typical slashdot user, there's nothing interesting enough in my life to post in the first place (even if that doesn't stop most other people.)

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:Four Square

[SnowDog74]

I hear every bar that you go to is more relevant than every bar I go to.

Re:Four Square

[gstoddart]

That's what I was thinking but it's now cool to be jaded on Slashdot. Acting like you're too old school to give a crap about anything used by the social networking folks is now hip.

Well, I don't know about hip ... mine aches from time to time, but I don't think that's what you mean. :-P

But, some of us are old and jaded and don't get the whole social networking thing. Some of this stuff just reminds me of stuff I got bored with in the early-mid 90's and stopped using. Some of the technologies are the same, but it's largely the same inane gibberish as before.

Heck, even my 70 year old mother doesn't trust Facebook and has stopped using it. She finds it's more crap than useful. (I was more surprised she ever used it than that she had given up on it and largely stopped using it.)

Re:Four Square

[Americano]

That's true. You should totally try my favorite bar, but it's pretty underground, so trust me, you've never heard of it.

Re:Four Square

[SnowDog74]

I listen to bands so obscure they haven't been formed yet.

Re:Four Square

[Yvan256]

Someone should totally open up a bar for programmers. Just call it the Progress Bar.

Re:Four Square

[KarrdeSW]

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:Four Square

[clarkkent09]

I don't have a problem with social networking per se but the most popular ones (facebook, twitter, is something called myspace still around?) reek of insecurity and neediness to the extent that is pretty pathetic and easy to make fun of. It's the same thing as obsessive texting among teenage girls, the urge to be constantly in contact with somebody, anybody, to keep from even one second of feeling alone in the big bad world. Actually, if I do have a problem with it it is that being in contact with all the people you know, all the time, can easily mean too much interaction and too much worthless information and less quiet time for reflection. To paraphrase Ford Prefect, if humans don't keep constantly exercising their lips (in this case fingers on the keyboard) their brains might start working.

Re:Four Square

[Americano]

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?

Re:Four Square

[gstoddart]

And as far as what people around here want? Don't make any bets on it. I've been here a long time and if I put money down on what the future of most technology would be from the majority around here I would be broke today.

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:Four Square

[spuke4000]

Q: How many hipsters does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: It's some obscure number, you've never heard of it.

Re:Four Square

[Xemu]

I have an iPhone 4, I have no bars whereever I go.

Re:Four Square

[SnowDog74]

I had a conversation with a hipster the other day... Keep in mind I grew up in the 70's and 80's:

Hipster: "I had LCD Soundsystem's debut album before they recorded it."

Me: "i liked LCD Soundystem better when they were Gil-Scott Heron."

Him: "I stopped listening to the Arcade Fire years ago."

Me: "I liked Arcade Fire better when they were The Cure."

Him: "I listened to 80's music in the 90's."

Me: "I hated 80's music in the 70's."

Him: "I buy demo tapes on CD and transfer them to vinyl."

Me: "In 1981 I bought a Sony PCM-F1 and recorded digital on VHS."

Him: "I bought a $3000 Mac to run an NES Emulator."

Me: "I hacked my Atari VCS to make international phonecalls."

Him: "My other computer is an Amstrad."

Me: "I sold my Amstrad to some hipster shmuck for 10x what I paid... Hey..."

Him: "Back in the day we only had 8-bit colors."

Me: "Back in my day, we didn't have colors. We had A color... Amber, white or green."

Him: "I watched Ninja Warrior when it was called Sasuke."

Me: "I watched Power Rangers when it was called Voltron."

Him: "I was the first kid on my block to play Mortal Kombat."

Me: "I was the only kid on my block to own "Pac Man Fever" by Buckner & Garcia."

Him: "I played the first popular FPS, Wolfenstein 3-D."

Me: "I have Silas Warner's original Wolfenstein... in 2-D."

Him: "I listened to Massive Attack before House made their music popular."

Me: "I listened to Massive Attack when they had lyrics."

Him: "Oh yeah, I buy corduroy pants from the thrift store."

Me: "I gave my corduroy pants from third grade to the thrift store. You're wearing them."

Heh!

[Anonymous Coward]

rate them, comment on them, and generally spew your opinions all over the internet as fast as your fingers can hit the keys.

Kinda funny when you think about it. A Slashdotter seeming to poke fun or have a bit of disgust for people who babble on and on about something... Doesn't sound like this place at all. Oh no.

Re:Heh!

[Rhaban]

The difference is, on /. we only babble about stuff that matters. It's written on the top of the page, so it must be true.

Question about Foursquare

[Pojut]

I know what people do with it, but why do they do it?

Re:Question about Foursquare

[alen]

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:Question about Foursquare

[SydShamino]

My wife likes Gowalla because, at least at first, it was more of a geocaching game than a social networking application. She was one of their first users, starting with its premiere at SXSW two years ago. At the time you could go around creating sites everywhere (because none existed yet), collecting "items" that would be found at locations, and completing item sets. You could also create "trips" by linking together sites. She designed a trip to see the sights at a nearby university, and one to visit all the major public art installations in the city.

Now most places already have a Gowalla site, and she has most all of the items, so it's more about checking in to see who's been there. Believe it or not, when we were in Chicago last week for Lollapalooza, she found one of her Gowalla friends (another early adopter who she met because they kept noticing sites created by each other) had checked in at many of the same places we had the previous day, during an architecture tour. Turned out that he was in town, too, and when she thought she saw him on the street a few days before, she likely had. Oh, one of her old coworkers was there, too, and she saw his check-ins.

Meanwhile her tour of the university if one of the most followed public tours in the system. They now allow you to create private tours that only you and your friends can see, but if you're going somewhere new you can locate someone who lives there, temporarily get into their friend network, and see if there are any cool tours to visit. While in Chicago we really wanted to do the tour of Frank Lloyd Wright houses, all conveniently mapped out in Gowalla on her iPhone, but we didn't have a car.

Oh, you can also see what restaurants and businesses are nearby. You know all those small local restaurants that still don't have a web presence and thus still don't show up well in Google location searches? If they're good, someone has made a site for them on Gowalla, and you'll see them with reviews when you're nearby.

Anyway, that's why she uses it. Slashdot is as close as I get to social networking.

Re:All of us?

[kalirion]

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".

Easy Answer

[eldavojohn]

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:Easy Answer

[ihatejobs]

Getting a +5 on slashdot is as simple as posting some mindless drivel and having a bunch of your circlejerking buddies mod it up for you.

It's a pretty rare sight to actually see something Insightful modded as such.

Foursquare and offers

[Sockatume]

The guy who founded Foursquare's predecessor, Dodgeball, actually sold the business to Google, where it became Latitude. He was dissatisfied at that product's narrow scope, and set up Foursquare to revisit that niche the way he preferred. I imagine that Facebook put in a bid for Dodgeball and began work on Facebook Places after they were rejected.