my rant about what I want to fix in foursquare

1. What SUCKS About
Foursquare Today
by

2. 10 years ago, Seth Godin made
famous the idea of permission vs
interruption marketing.
Seth highlighted the intersection of frequent
flyer-style points programs, video game
achievement levels, and quid pro quo
relationships between customers and
companies. He declared the impending demise
of “interruption marketing.”
Seth asserted the future of marketing was about
membership, exclusivity, recognition, and
personal connection between companies and
their constituents.

3. Stopping whatever
you are doing to
check in while you
are somewhere cool
is lame!!!!!!!!!!!!

4. We want a
Passive
Geosocial
Experience

5. When I go to San
Francisco, visiting from
Washington DC for a
couple of weeks, I
change my “current
city” on Facebook to
reflect that.

6. One problem I found
was people asked
me: Did you move to
San Francisco?
Ben Blumenfeld, I’m looking at you :)

7. That could be fixed if
one’s profile had a
“Locations” tab that
kept track of these
changes, and allowed
for trip-planning (like
Dopplr).

8. This new Locations
tab could would
connect with their
Fan Page ecosystem.
(This would also work for MySpace.)

9. If I check in to a
concert, the artist has
a Fan Page, the venue
does too, and the
opening artists might
as well.

10. When I check into an
Eminem concert and
that is pushed to my
Wall, I’d like to
include a music
preview for my
friends to hear.

11. This would
complement the
Events system in
Facebook.

12. Check-ins for a
business would show
up on the business’ Fb
fan page, so who
needs Foursquare?
But then again, I said the same thing about not
needing Twitter because I have Facebook’s status
updates.

13. I think Foursquare is
on the front lines of
this battle.
The real geosocial
war is between
Google and
Facebook.

14. I hope Foursquare,
Gowalla, Loopt,
BrightKite, Yellow
Pages and Yelp can
find a way to keep
themselves relevant
once the big boys
start duking it out.

15. We made
this flyer
for SXSWi
this year.
:)

16. Facebook has a killer
iPhone strategy, and
Facebook Connect rocks.
Facebook Connect +
Passive Check-In =
Opportunity

17. PEOPLE ARE LAZY
(at least, we Americans are)

18. The current GPS
technology certainly
knows when I’m in a
particular
neighborhood or
district.

19. But if you own a
business on the 30th
floor of a 200-story
building, how do
your customers
check in using
current GPS
technology?

20. Current GPS technology
knows that I’m at
Yankee Stadium
because there is
nothing above to
confuse it.

21. It seems the natural
solution is a more
accurate next-gen GPS
system that passively
checks me in.
But that allows for
tiered permissions
(like Facebook).

22. If I want to go
OnGrid, then I turn
the app on.

23. If I’m somewhere for
15 minutes or more:
I’m there.
I am checked in.

24. Or as Alexey said:
“If I’m somewhere for
15+ minutes, ask me:
‘Should I check you
in at XYZ?’”
(Via something like Android's
notification system)

25. If I want to go
OffGrid, then I turn
the app off.

26. Imagine if everyone
with a cell phone
used this service?

27. Imagine if everyone
in your cell phone
address book used
this service?

28. Your address book wants
to come alive.
OpenID has blessed us
with the ability to connect
people with their
corresponding data.
Genius right? Use it!

29. Swarming makes more
sense if you don't have to
stop to announce it.
When I’m at a happy hour,
I’m usually too busy doing
whatever I am supposed to
be doing to check in.

30. You can still push a
notification to your
Twitter/Facebook
feed that says “I
checked into The
White House.”

31. Or as BrooklynGeek said:
What is even more tiring than playing this game like
it's a job is the frustration you get when you can’t
check in someplace, worse if you've been there before
but you get Server Errors.
It's like they forgot they
have storage on the phone.
Every time I check somewhere, I’d like to keep a local
copy of Nearby places. If no Internet connection is
available or the server is down, you can at least use
the application when you had the initiative to do so.
Next time, sure, update with the latest info about the
places and send my delayed check-in to the server.

32. Mayorship becomes to
hard to obtain. Why is that
the only measure of rank?
We also want a “regular”
status. Why just pamper a
single customer when you
could encourage more
people to come back to
your business?

33. “Regulars”? that
sounds like Facebook
Fans, or Twitter
Followers. Regulars
become a separate
type of fan.

34. And we don’t
want any
cheating.
Your phone is like your IP
address. Figure out smart
ways to stop cheating.

35. Cheating on
Foursquare is a
“Quality-of-life
crime”.

36. Per Wikipedia, American sociologist
James Q. Wilson encapsulated this
argument as the Broken Window Theory,
which asserts that relatively minor
problems left unattended (such as
public urination by homeless individuals,
open alcohol containers and public
alcohol consumption) send a subliminal
message that disorder in general is
being tolerated and, as a result, more
serious crimes will end up being
committed (the analogy being that a
broken window left unrepaired shows an
image of general dilapidation).

37. Rewards and prizes
for loyalty become
that much more
relevant.

38. I want help finding
my friends, just like
Google Latitude
promised!

39. Let’s say you’re at the mall, meeting
a group of friends for a movie, and
you are wondering, where is that
straggler friend who’s holding you
up?
If you could pull out your phone
and see that he was at his
apartment or en route. that would
save you time and effort.

40. I want something like
Dopplr to work
passively on phones.
(Nokia bought Dopplr last year)

41. Routes vs Locations

42. When you passively
share your location,
over time your route
becomes the new
check-in.

43. It’s all about the map.

44. Google will be a key
player in this.

45. Facebook would use
Bing maps in their
location play. Or
would they build a
map API from
scratch?

46. These social
networks don’t have
map technology in-
house.

47. Google, Microsoft
and Yahoo were
smart to invest in
map technology.

48. It’s also about
the reviews.

49. Good opportunities
for Yelp and Zagat to
stay in the game.
But Google already
thought of this, and
doesn’t need direct
partnerships, because they
have Google Local.

50. Imagine if every
business had a
system at the door
that scans your Open
Facebook Connect
ID?

51. You walk in the door
and it scans your
phone without you
pointing the phone at
it, or even knowing it
happened.

52. Or maybe some kind
of digital blueprint?
Like how the zoning
on Google maps
works.

53. Or as Bill said
One should be able
able to create a
location blacklist. I
don't want to check
in to McDonalds, or a
strip club, even
though I make the
occasional visit.

54. After a night on the
town, if you realize
your wife wouldn’t
approve of your
“route” :) then you
could groom your
data like you do a
Facebook Wall.

55. The phone is the
ground on which the
geosocial war is
waged.

56. My status right now
would be a green
light with the text
explanation:
“Writing”.

57. My parents are
sleeping right now,
so their status might
be a red light with no
explanation.

58. Our friends in Japan
are awake; Yoko
might have a green
light with the text
“Out to Lunch with
Jerry Maguire.”

59. Sound familiar? AIM
got this right. Which,
of course, is inspired
by traffic light color
coding.

60. I want an AIM-like
status on my entire
address book. And I
want to know where
the people who share
their location with
me are.

62. @jess3 on twitter