At their most basic, each of these services allows you to check in to a location (restaurant, store, theater or other business), using your mobile device. Because the phone knows where you are through it's internal GPS, you can only check in to a location when you are within a certain distance, and cannot check in from your computer.
Why, you may ask, would you want to spend time checking in?
According to the sites, it's a great way to connect with friends (hey, look, one of your friends just checked in at the Target where you are shopping!), discover new places by seeing where other people are checking in, and get rewarded through virtual prizes or titles (I am the Duchess of several locations on Yelp.com).
As companies catch on to the idea that people like you and me are checking in, there are additional benefits such as coupon codes sent to users when they check in locally (after checking in to a conference center, I was offered a discount burrito from a local lunch place).
At first glance, the sites are pretty similar:
- * Both allow you to earn "badges" depending things such as how many places you check in, how many places you add, etc.
- * Foursquare uses Mayorships as a way to signify someone who checks into a particular venue the most time. Yelp.com uses Dukes and Duchesses. Gowalla doesn't have anything.
- * Gowalla and Yelp.com allow you to post photos of a location. Foursquare doesn't
- * On Foursquare you can follow companies such as MTV, Bravo and bon appetit, to unlock more badges and find tips around your city. Gowalla works with companies like National Geographic to create trip recommendations.
- * You can check into places (parks, monuments) on Foursquare and Gowalla, but can only check in to businesses on Yelp.
- * All three will connect with your Facebook or Twitter accounts to find friends, and to update your status with your check ins.
- * All three allow you to add locations (without any obvious verification process, so you can add a venue anywhere you want, even if it's not actually there) and tips.
During the course of my experiment, I found myself using Gowalla for most of my check ins, utilizing Yelp when I went to a restaurant or business where I would like to also leave a review. There was nothing wrong with Foursquare, I just liked the look and feel of Gowalla's interface and graphics. Of course the service you choose will most likely depend on where you have more friends!
When contemplating check in services, one must also consider the issue of TMI (or too much information). A friend threatened to unfriend me on Facebook because his personal thread was being overwhelmed by my check ins. There was also the site "PleaseRobeMe.com" a social media experiment which was designed to point out that, by oversharing, we may be actually making life really easy for would-be burglars.
Now that my experiment has ended, the fact is I'm probably not going to be checking into places that often because, honestly, my life is just not that interesting. When we were on vacation, I enjoyed "checking in" to landmarks and locations we passed during our road trip to North Carolina. Day-to-day, I'm not sure it will be very interesting for ANYONE if the only places I'm checking into is work and work.
That being said, I did check into my favorite lunch place today because, to paraphrase Popeye, I am WHERE I am, and that's all that I am.
Do you use a location service like Gowalla or Foursquare? Why or why not?