I’d heard about the Foursquare website for awhile before it ever became available in my hometown of Indianapolis, IN. When it finally arrived here in Indianapolis and they added it to their city list, I immediately got more active on the site.
Prior to using Foursquare I was a fairly avid user of the similar website for geo-location updates with Brightkite. My initial thoughts were that these two sites were competitors of each other, but after using Foursquare for awhile, they’re really not, which I’ve written about earlier on this site.
Foursquare focuses more on what you’re doing and encouraging others to join you. Brightkite just makes it easier for people to know where you are and give you the potential opportunity for a random get together.
There are a few things I’m not so sure about with Foursquare‘s use. Oddly enough, the Foursquare service seems to be made and targeted more for the mobile user and those with smart phones. I still can’t figure out why I can’t actually checkin somewhere on the main Foursquare website.
I’m also not sure why they don’t have more automated and integrated mapping functionality. I can’t add a location to their database without knowing the address and phone number for the location myself.
They also don’t seem to be interested in anyone that may be a mobile worker that moves from a variety of locations throughout the normal hours of your workday.
It’s still a fun site, but I’m wondering what’s in store and how long it will keep going. I think it would be interesting to see a potential merger between Foursquare and Brightkite. They’d be a geo-location service master!