I like Gowalla but Foursquare seems to be doing more to engage me. First, Flickr integration with machine tagging, then superuser status and now Layar – the Augmented Reality app. I’m tired of updating both Gowalla and Foursquare every time. Can one win me over soon? Let’s see what both has got to offer.

I’ll admit, I haven’t been a big fan of Foursquare.

I used to like Foursquare until I found out how easy it was to game the system and check-in to places without having to be there physically. In less than an hour I could get 300+ points to put me on top of the leaderboard. The game turned me off instantly.

Another thing that turned me off Foursquare was how long it took to check-in or create a new place as compared to Gowalla which picks up your location automatically so you don’t need to enter the venue’s address. People don’t always give a friend the address to a restaurant, we say it’s behind KLCC or between this place and that place. Who remembers the address anyways. So you take more time creating places in Foursquare than in Gowalla. Foursquare is also quite new in KL so a LOT of places are not on the map.

Talking about map – here’s another problem I have with Foursquare. Even with the address entered, the map can go wrong – placing  the pin in an area you haven’t even heard of or a place you’ll never go to like in the middle of a lake. Unlike Gowalla, you cannot edit the map at all in Foursquare which is really frustrating. I thought the Superuser status would let me fix the map but I still couldn’t do it. Gee, how hard is it to implement this feature? What I can do as a Level 1 Superuser is limited to merging duplicates and closing rubbish venues like “I hate my boss”.

Duplicate venues was the other reason why I found Foursquare messed up. This is also another way to game the system, you can create 5 different Mid Valleys, spelling it slightly different, check-in to all 5 and get extra points to get you closer to the lead in the game. Some guys love that and would often proudly announce on twitter when they become a mayor and what new badges they got. Maybe some of them deserve it.

It’s actually not all bad, there are cool things about Foursquare like its community of people who take the time to leave tips that pop-up when you’re near a venue. The number of people who are doing this to help others however, are still very small. When I see a really useful tip pop up from someone in Foursquare, I always say a silent thank you to the person who left it. This is what makes Foursquare useful. I hope this community of tip contributors will grow.

flickr machine tag

The integration of Foursquare into other services is something I find very exciting. It is integrated into Flickr so you can add machine tags to pictures taken at venues listed in Foursquare. Folks looking at your flickr picture can click on it and be taken to the venue page to read your review/tip or get the address to visit the place themselves. The map can’t be trusted yet and I would also sometimes add “Don’t trust the map” into my Foursquare tips. Foursquare venues and tips are also integrated into Layar as an AR layer. When you pan your phone around you’ll see venues and tips popping into your screen which is pretty cool. I can see my own tips and other people’s tips on what’s interesting nearby. Again, please note that the location map in Foursquare cannot be trusted which means that the locations in Layar are also dodgy. The integration (idea) into other services that I use regularly is what’s making Foursquare engaging to me. So I am taking a second look and going to use it a bit more, together with Gowalla.

I’m not about to forget Gowalla yet but Foursquare is close to making me give it up. Foursquare just needs to improve the venue creation process and make the map editable, not just for superusers but for everyone.  The game is fun for awhile (pretend you’re not hacking it) so it’s nice but not important. Game-wise, I like Gowalla’s better because it’s harder to exploit. The idea of picking up items and leaving something behind for others to pick up is a nice touch. In Gowalla, when you create a spot, you can become a founder by dropping an item. But it also gets very frustrating when you have run out of items to drop, it is a total killjoy. I want to like Gowalla and I’ve given a lot of feedback but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears. I’m now hoping Foursquare can improve further and make it the one and only location based check-in game on my iPhone.

Add me:

On Foursquare: http://foursquare.com/user/thechannelc
On Gowalla: http://gowalla.com/users/thechannelc

9 out of 10 location maps of places I create in Foursquare are off. Here's one example.

Jan 10 Update: There was apparently a January 8 update at the Foursquare blog that I missed. The location finder has improved and I tested it with a location I created this evening and I left the address field empty just to see if the app can track down my GPS location. It did, yay. But it still won’t let me edit the map and fix all the previous venues that have their pins someplace other than where it should be. Give us editable maps, Foursquare.