Geo-networking opens up a whole new world
Chances are by now you've seen one of the many mentions of Facebook and Twitter that are splattered all across the web. These social networks have been the darling of technologists, marketers and the media alike. The irony, however, is that these 'social' networks were making us anything but social, at least in the traditional definition of the word. However, the advent of geo-networking or location-based networking looks to change that with services that let users interact based on their physical location at a given time.
A number of mobile applications have sprung up that focus completely on geo social networking: Loopt, Whrrl, BrightKite, MyTown, Burbn, FourSquare and Gowalla to name a few. Of this, FourSquare leads the pack in terms of user numbers and activity with Gowalla being a distant second.
The way FourSquare works, for instance, is by bringing up a list of venues around you based on your location (determined by your phone's GPS or cell tower) and lets you 'check-in' to them. Should the venue not be listed, it lets you add a venue to the database too. Additionally, to introduce a layer of fun, FourSquare awards points based on the frequency of the check-ins. Active users are awarded virtual 'badges' and the user who checks in to a venue more than anyone else is crowned 'mayor' of the venue, until he is ousted of course.
On one hand some see this as a blatant violation of one's privacy, but others see this as a missing link between online social networks and real life networks. The privacy advocates obviously are having a field day with this claiming that we have become increasingly stalkable with the excessive personal information we're making accessible. In fact, the website PleaseRobMe.com is a tongue-in-cheek website that aggregates 'check-ins' from Twitter highlighting the public nature of location sharing. FourSquare, while being very careful to not underrate the dangers of sharing your location publicly, says the sharing of this information is 'opt-in' (you choose what to share) and is done with your friends (you choose who to share it with).
And that really is the point. On FourSquare, people are still much more careful on who they connect to and thus it feels like a much more closer network.
There are those who will doubt and ridicule geo- networking. But the same was said about Twitter and Facebook, and even the internet. There is no denying that geo-networking opens up a whole new world of opportunities for businesses looking for customer intelligence and more importantly, engaging with them.
And with the increasing relevance of the mobile web, location based sharing takes social networking offline and "where are you?" could soon become the new "what's on your mind?"
- The writer is a social strategist at Dubai-based media training and consulting firm Socialize