Geolocation Applications: The Major Players
In less than 18 months, over three billion applications have been downloaded from the iTunes App Store. Thousands, if not millions, of these have been geolocation apps - applications that use an iPhone or other smartphone's GPS. By locating you and your phone, geolocation apps give you the opportunity to "check-in", or opt in and share your location with your social networks.
Depending on your security settings, this location is shared with your network in the application, Twitter, Facebook or any number of other social networks. And now, an overview of some of the most popular geolocation applications:
Foursquare
I'll admit it, I'm partial. Foursquare is my location app of choice. It has the biggest network - 725,000 users and 22 million checkins as of March 29th and consistently good updates and features. You can check-in by selecting a list of nearby spots or by typing in the name of where you are. Not in the system? You can create it (this feature has led to some interesting locations.)
Foursquare is flexible - the interface allows you to check in at a place even if you're not quite there geographically. The best part of Foursquare is the competition - users who check in most at a location become the mayor. The app also uses badges to reward check-ins, and these virtual awards have led many a user to quest after items like "I'm on a Boat" and the "Douchebag" badge. Your network on Foursquare is built from friend requests, generated from Twitter followers, Facebook fans and email contacts.
Foursquare's one downfall is that it doesn't allow photo submissions - at all. Users can submit to-do suggestions or tips, and post their locations to Twitter or Facebook, but adding images just isn't available (yet) (I hope). Still, it's one of the richest applications available, and, with many of my friends and contacts already using it, it's an easy pick for first.
Gowalla
Gowalla has the market on attractive location-based apps cornered. It works in a similar way to Foursquare - you "check-in" by selecting a nearby location. The caveat with Gowalla is that you must actually be at (or close to) the location you want to choose. This has led to some headaches, such as the time I tried to check-in at the Austin Convention Center, and a glitch within the app told me I was 10 km away.
Frustrations aside, Gowalla also uses a virtual rewarding system. Users can pick up or leave "items" (a taco, ice skates, a drink) at locations for other users to find. Unlike Foursquare, Gowalla allows users to take and upload photos to locations and tweet tips, highlights or simply just your location. As an added interaction tool, Gowalla has incorporated "trips", which are like geographic scavenger hunts through cities.
Whrrl
If I had written this post before SXSW, I think I would have stopped at Gowalla. But SXSW reintroduced me to Whrrl, an app that's reinterpreting social and gaming in location based apps. Foursquare and Gowalla have taken a similar virtual reward approach that's essentially the same from place to place and for user to user. Whrrl, on the other hand, has created "societies", within which users gain points and move up levels. For example, each time I check in at the gym, I get points in the "gym rat" society to move up from rookie to total gym junkie (hey, I'll get there.)
Whrrl is one of the few apps that rewards users for making recommendations or adding tips. When I add a to-do item, Whrrl gives me points towards a society. If someone completes that item or recommends it to others, I get points as well. They're the first app, to me, to really incentivize the user-generated content portion of their tool.
Other Applications
These are just 3 of the many, many geolocation apps available. The recently released Rally Up and Check.in incorporate other geolocation apps with other tools, like Google Maps, to create a more immersive, social experience. Meanwhile, Brightkite, Loopt and others who were early into the app game, find themselves struggling to achieve success in a crowded market.
Up next: how can businesses and organizations take advantage of mayorships, societies and check-ins to market themselves and identify their most passionate consumers?
Did I miss your favorite app or feature? Let me know in the comments!
