Section: iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iPhone, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps, Reviews
Category: Social Media
Developer: FourSquare
Requirements: iPhone 3.0 software, locations only available in certain cities
Compatibility: iPhone and iPod touch
File Size: 0.4 MB
Version Reviewed: 1.4.2
Price: Free
“Social Media” software, strangely enough, is most often used to communicate and organize people who can’t meet face to face. I have people I knew in college, theater colleagues, and friends who live all over the world, and thanks to things like Facebook and Twitter, I’m able to keep up with their lives on a casual basis. It’s like an ongoing Christmas card newsletter, except that I actually look forward to reading it (and therefore nothing like a Christmas card newsletter).
FourSquare, though, is something different; it’s a social media application designed to bring people together in the real world, using geolocation and other social media apps. After you register (for free), you can “sign in” to locations around town and it’ll notify your friends (and other FourSquare users) where you are. If you register your Twitter or Facebook account, you can broadcast your location using those as well (it will also scan your list of friends to find out if any of them are on FourSquare).
One of the interesting social engineering aspects of FourSquare is the points system that’s built in. You get (completely meaningless) points for going to new locations, bringing your friends along with you, visiting multiple locations in one night, and visiting the same location multiple times. If you’re the most frequent visitor to a location, you become “The Mayor” of that site until someone else visits more than you, making like an electronic version of King Of The Hill. The points system favors a crowd that goes out at night rather than a work lunch: while you always get points for checking in at a new location, you only get the other points for check-ins after 4 pm on weekdays, and all day on weekends.
The other “game” aspect they’ve built in is Badges, which you get for accomplishments like checking in at 10 unique locations or four in one night (Crunked) or four consecutive nights of check ins (the Bender). FourSquare also lets you assign tips and challenges for locations, and to see the ones that other users have assigned for the place you’re at, as well as nearby locations. Think of it as a grassroots guide.
FourSquare is obviously not an application for people with privacy concerns: it exists to tell people where you are and what you’re doing. Still, there are levels of exposure. I chose not to register my Twitter account, but was still able to find out who among my Twitter friends also had a FourSquare account. I’ve yet to use it to actually go out and connect with my friends, but I am interested in the competitive aspect of it; accumulating points and exploring new locales in my city. It’s kind of like experience points from Dungeons and Dragons, except instead of killing a Gelatinous Cube you’re watching hipsters spill PBR on their ironic T-shirts.
I have a feeling I may be a bit too old for FourSquare. But for those whom Late Night Excitement means hooking up with pals at an unusual bar rather than finding a favorite movie playing on TCM, FourSquare is an intriguing way of finding the secret nooks and crannies of your own city (provided it’s one of the cities supported by the app: they’re up to 21 now). And while the thought of broadcasting my social life (such as it is) to the world at large gives me the hives, FourSquare gives you a lot of control over how much you share. And it’s hard to hate an application that’s trying to make social media into something that actually resembles a social life.
FourSquare is available for the iPhone/iPod touch, Blackberry, and Google Android as an application. Users cans also check in via the web and SMS.
Appletell Rating:
Buy FourSquare
Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »
