a bit of an apology to Foursquare and Gowalla
A while ago - and yes sorry about the time it’s taken to get a new post up and running - I gave geo-locating services such as Gowalla and Foursquare a little bit of a ribbing. I was worried about the security aspect left by the user if people were publicly announcing where they were; I still am. But where my apology lies is that the benefit these services can provide to businesses are not being focused upon enough in my opinion.
Everyday I check into my place of work. (Admittedly I was trying to knock the current mayor @russhirst off top spot) I walk past several places everyday that I could and do check into, but what is truly great is the personalisation of the service you can get. Discounts, offers, virtual community building. It’s there to be used, so let’s start using it.
So Foursquare and Gowalla (and any other service), please forgive my ignorance, I am, after all just very naive….and somewhat cynical.
