This afternoon, Crain’s Chicago announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with the rapidly growing Foursquare location service, to provide “inside tips” on local restaurants when users check in to a reviewed restaurant, or a nearby establishment. For example, when a user checks in to the restaurant “Trader Vics”, they’ll receive a tip which states “The unusual wok-fried lamb ($25) caught our eye, sliced meat with shiso leaf, watercress, apricots and pine nuts.”
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Twitter officially launched their location feature back in March, but today the company began actively promoting location and gave users the option of turning on the feature. This is a relatively big deal for a number of reasons but most significant is that Twitter is having users opt-in to sharing their location, not forcing it upon users as Facebook has done with their “Instant Personalization” program.
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With 40 percent market share of the smartphone market, BlackBerry yields a lot of influence, which is why there are now numerous location applications popping up for the platform. From GPS location trackers and location aware Twitter clients to apps that provide local recommendations for places to hang out and eat, to apps that will help you stay fit and healthy. Here are our picks of the 10 most useful location aware apps for BlackBerry.
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When I was at South by Southwest in Austin a few weeks ago, checking in on Foursquare and Gowalla was useful as it helped people know where I was and friends reciprocated letting me know where they were at. It was also somewhat novel being able to get new badges and show up on the Foursquare leaderboard, but weeks later I never check in on the application. Simply put: there is no incentive for me to check in.
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Location-sharing apps such as Foursquare, Loopt Pulse, Gowalla, Stuck, MyTown and dozens of others have purpose beyond the obvious: mobile location marketing. They can be used by merchants to gauge moods, purchasing interest, and loyalty potential, then coupled with real incentives to increase leads and sales. Here are a few such uses.
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Social apps are taking on new uses, with Twitter predicting movie box office success and now location sharing apps such as Foursquare potential predicting divorce. Information about pending divorces are of course of interest to lenders, and it’s actually Visa who’s using mobile social network data to predict such, so they know where to find you.
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Apple’s big iPhone OS 4.0 announcement event today reveals some important updates relating to mobile apps: not only will there finally be 3rd-party app multi-tasking but also local notification and background location features. Both of these new features will benefit improved used of mobile apps such as social networking and location sharing.
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Just as with all popular new services, Foursquare now has a product that lets you pay to game the system. GetMayor lets users pay to become the mayor of various destinations. At the rate of $24.99 for a one time mayorship, and $89.99 for permanent mayorship, I seriously doubt this product is going to gain traction. The biggest issue here is that there’s little benefit to becoming a mayor of a venue.
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A Tampa eye doctor who spends his time between patients being on Twitter, and also uses other social media, has come up with the idea of Foursquare Day. The special day, in Nathan Bonilla-Warford’s mind, would be April 16th. Read on to see why that day in particular.
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You might think you’re mildly addicted to social media and location-sharing apps such as Foursquare, but would you ski the North Pole for a geo-location badge? Fifteen-year old Parker Liautaud will be part of an expedition that involves social media reportage, including Foursquare. His own goal is to be the youngest to ski “the last degree” of the North Pole, as well as raise environmental awareness.
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