Sharing Location: How With Judo-flips Foursquare on its head

I was talking with some friends on Saturday night. I was telling them why Path’s new app With intrigues me and why I’m totally turned off by Foursquare.

Here was the summary of my argument:

With is all about people. You can add pictures and location to that if you want but first and foremost it’s about the company you keep.

Foursquare isn’t interesting to me because I don’t really have a changing bond with a place. Tagging the friends I’m with in Foursquare is optional; it’s about location first and people second.

I’ve said for a while that Foursquare and Gowalla were just the first step in location. I love how With turns that sharing model on its head, focusing on people rather than places. Very cool.

"

We’re turning the world around us into a videogame, using sites like Foursquare to tell our friends where we’re eating lunch, and competing to see who can become “mayor” of some restaurant.

Meanwhile, in the midst of all this, Glenn Beck has become an influential television commentator, and Sarah Palin is a credible candidate for president in 2012. You think this is a coincidence?

No way. What’s happening is this: we are being so overwhelmed by the noise and junk zooming past us that we’re becoming immune to it. We’ve become a nation of Internet-powered imbeciles, with an ever-lower threshold for inanity.

Beck and Palin are the inevitable outcome of that devolution. They are what we deserve. They are, in fact, what we’ve created.

"
–

Daniel Lyons of Newsweek

Wow. Lyons is right. And this is terrifying.

Foursquare or Gowalla?

I have two apps on my phone and I hate using both. You decide which one I keep.

Vote based on which you use, which name you like better, whatever.

Which one gets the boot?

Should I stay on Foursquare or jump to Gowalla? I’m really interested in location-sharing services right now and exploring the benefits and fun things you can do with the emerging technology. Right now I use Foursquare though I’m not really sure why. Most of my friends using this location-sharing apps are on Gowalla. In my past few months using Foursquare I’ve become the mayor of 8 places but beyond serial check-ins, I haven’t done much with the service. Whichever service wins, I will use solely for a month and then document the experience. Which do you use? Which should I use? And, most importantly, why do you like your particular service over the other location-sharing services? Find me on Foursquare and Gowalla.

Should I stay on Foursquare or jump to Gowalla?

I’m really interested in location-sharing services right now and exploring the benefits and fun things you can do with the emerging technology. Right now I use Foursquare though I’m not really sure why. Most of my friends using this location-sharing apps are on Gowalla.

In my past few months using Foursquare I’ve become the mayor of 8 places but beyond serial check-ins, I haven’t done much with the service.

Whichever service wins, I will use solely for a month and then document the experience.

Which do you use? Which should I use? And, most importantly, why do you like your particular service over the other location-sharing services?

Find me on Foursquare and Gowalla.

Find me on foursquare

I’m really getting into Foursquare and I’m not sure why. It’s a lot of fun and that’s enough for me.

If you use Foursquare, send me a friend request. You can see where I am and what I’m doing in Boulder, if you’re so inclined.