Foursquare and the Tragedy of the GPS

This post was supposed to be a lot of things. It was supposed to be the last post in my mobile series - how business & organizations can use geolocation apps. Then, it was supposed to be a rant about Foursquare's new GPS integration and how much I hate it. And, on a personal level, I do hate it. But I understand it. Why?

I know why Foursquare did it. And they're smart.

Business are getting ideas about using Foursquare for campaigns. Prizes for mayors, discounts for a certain number of check-ins, branded badges. Foursquare, like any company, likes money. Pride in winning the "Don't Stop Believin'" badge doesn't keep the lights on and it doesn't pay salaries.

And so, to monetize, Foursquare had to change. They had to hold users accountable and prove to businesses that the mayor of their venue was actually the person who's been physically there the most times. (By the way, this is, in essence, a summary of what my use for businesses post was going to be about - rewarding your visitors. More later!)

As a user? I hate the GPS integration, but not because it exists. As I said less than a week ago, the reason I use Foursquare over Gowalla is because of Gowalla's bug-ridden GPS. For non-smartphone users, their Foursquare usage is going to basically be nil, and if you ever forget to check-in somewhere while you're there, well, you're just out of luck.

Foursquare made this decision because they're a business. As a marketer, I get that. But I'm willing to bet thousands of their users aren't - and who's going to meet their needs?

(Coming up next: Foursquare Fox: You have to be kidding me.)