Entries Tagged 'News' ↓

One of the most intriguing geolocation services made a major announcement today. Steve Boom, who spent 10 years as Yahoo’s Senior Vice President, was announced as Loopt’s new president.

Sam Altman, the co-founder and CEO of Loopt, had some intriguing things to say about their newly-named president:

He’s grown mobile companies from upstarts to established brands, helping them reach new levels of user engagement and monetization. I fully expect him to do the same for Loopt.

Among the mobile startups that Boom has been put in charge of, mig33 is one of his most successful. According to the Loopt blog, Boom will continue to serve as the chairman of the company, based in Singapore.

Back in July, TechCrunch reported that Loopt had passed the four million user mark, so Loopt is no pushover when it comes to location-based services. While Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places continue to grow, Loopt clearly understands its’ place in a continuously growing and competitive field.

Do you believe that the addition of Steve Boom will help Loopt reach new heights with their location-based service?

(Picture Credit: Loopt Blog)

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TIME Magazine releases a list of the 50 best websites on an annual basis, which highlights the best websites in a variety of categories over the span of a year. There were five social media websites honored—most people would recognize the popular professional networking website LinkedIn as well as the micro-blogging service Tumblr.

However, there was a surprising snub in the geolocation list: Foursquare was left off, and Gowalla was honored instead.

Now don’t get me wrong: there are some people out there that would say that Gowalla deserved the honor. The issue at hand, according to Sarah Perez from ReadWriteWeb, was that Gowalla delayed the release of their Application Programming Interface (API), while Foursquare’s API has been available for months. According to Perez, waiting around could eventually be the downfall for Gowalla.

Avid geolocation platform users are likely a member of both Foursquare and Gowalla, but Gowalla has a smaller user base than Foursquare currently does. In your opinion, does Gowalla merit a “victory” over Foursquare in TIME’s 50 Best Websites of 2010? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Foursquare has unveiled a beautiful new advertisement in New York City’s Times Square that will reach thousands of people a day.

The ad is a huge, multi-level corner advertisement that will command the attention and the curiosity of passers-by—and it must be a dream for the geolocation platform to have such a huge presence.

According to TechCrunch, the ad space is owned by American Eagle, so it is likely that American Eagle contributed help to Foursquare in terms of affording the costs involved. That being said, it is an impressive presence for the most popular geolocation platform out there today.

The ad is placed above the American Eagle store location. Perhaps even more impressive is that the ad is the “largest digital billboard in Times Square”.

What are your thoughts on the Foursquare ad? What impact will the ad have on the service as a whole?

If you’re anything like me, I cannot turn down a good burrito for breakfast, lunch or dinner. While Chipotle may be the best known chains to get delicious burritos, you may also be familiar with a competitor, Qdoba.

The best part about Qdoba—at least for Foursquare users—is that you can get a free burrito if you are creative and good with words.

In order to qualify for a potential free burrito, you have to check in to any participating Qdoba location. Then, use the Foursquare “Shout” function to “shout about how you beat burrito boredom”. The best and most creative answers from users will result in a free burrito for each shout.

So what are you waiting for? If you want to get in on the competition, check out Qdoba’s store locator and visit your closest store location to check in and shout.

Do you plan on giving the free burrito shout a try? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Just a few days ago, Geolocation Today covered the University of Michigan athletics program and their Foursquare use. Now, it looks like the Atlantic Coast Conference has also gotten active on the platform.

SB Nation released a report tonight that showed the total number of ACC checkins to their football stadiums. The two Florida ACC teams, Florida State and Miami, took the top spots. The state of North Carolina also had an impressive showing, with NC State and UNC both in the top five.

Impressively, the ACC recorded more total Foursquare checkins than the SEC, and that excludes Wake Forest’s football stadium.

Expect to see more reports on Foursquare use in college football stadiums this year. Geolocation websites and platforms tend to be popular amongst a younger demographic, and college students are no exception.

How do you think geolocation websites will affect college athletics?

Foursquare recently made some changes to their privacy settings that users should make a note of. In this post, I will outline the three major changes as well and provide some background into how these changes will affect you, the Foursquare user.

1. Email and Phone Number information now can be hidden.

This one is pretty straightforward, but in the event you do not want to share your email or your phone number, you can choose to hide it from the public’s eye. While email addresses tend to be easy to pass along and find, a phone number tends to be much more private. With the option to withhold your phone number(s), users may be more inclined to use the service.

2. You can now hide your mayorships.

Yes…mayorships are supposed to be a reward on Foursquare, but are they an award in real life? Your list of mayorships shows people where you have checked in the most: and that could be a potential security issue.

Foursquare was smart to incorporate this as a setting as it could actually increase the  number of checkins on their service. Places where people felt uncomfortable checking into before are now places where people will check in.

3. Extended control over email settings.

As if your inbox wasn’t already cluttered enough: Foursquare friend requests and confirmations can take up a lot of email space. Foursquare has planned to expand the users’ control over email settings: just how they will do so is unknown at this time.

What are your thoughts on Foursquare’s latest privacy setting adjustments? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Have you heard of MyTown’s Product Check-in feature? Launched on July 26, 2010, it has been one of the fastest-growing features in the geolocation world.

Here’s how it works: Through using your iPhone’s built-in camera and scanning barcodes, you are rewarded with cash and/or points. Amazingly, though the service is only three weeks old, the geolocation platform’s creator Booyah announced that MyTown recorded over 350,000 Product Check-ins per week.

The company also announced two brands that have offered rewards for Product Check-ins, including H&M and Pantene. Through simply scanning an H&M item, the MyTown user is automatically entered in a contest to win a $500 gift card: not too shabby for a simple task.

With geolocation users taking full advantage of Foursquare and other social networking sites, MyTown may not be a familiar service to many. However, there is something to be said for a feature that can gather this much attention in such a short timespan.

Will you be giving MyTown a try with the recent announcement of these numbers?

How does a few free songs a week sound to you? If you’re a fan of receiving free tunes for checking in, Loopt Star may just be what you are looking for.

Loopt’s newest checkin platform will reward users with music for their checkins to specific bars.

Fans of Top 40 radio will really like the artist list they’ve prepared for the debut week. Lady Gaga, La Roux, Miley Cyrus, Mos Def and Taio Cruz are among the first batch of artists. According to Billboard, Loopt plans on refreshing the songs every Tuesday.

While Foursquare has a badge system in place, Loopt is taking it one step further and offering actual incentives that should appeal to a wide range of music fans across the country. Could this set a precedent for future geolocation reward systems? It is certainly possible, but it remains to be seen if offering free music as an incentive will encourage people to check in at Loopt’s given checkpoints.

If geolocation websites offered real-life incentives like Loopt is currently doing, would you be more inclined to use them? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

As many people around the country know, the University of Michigan offers a wide array of elite sports programs. Now, the Wolverines are looking to leverage the geolocation side of social networking by partnering with Foursquare.

Michigan is perhaps best known for their football team and their men’s basketball team, but the school offers 25 additional varsity sports. The university is hoping to use Foursquare to “provide more visibility” for these sports through offering incentives over the platform. In addition, the school will be utilizing Foursquare to publicize special offers and tips for their biggest venues.

According to the report, Michigan will use the service to promote their Fan Day, currently scheduled for August 22, 2010.

The university is among the first to jump onto the geolocation bandwagon, and it should be interesting to see how successful their geolocation campaign efforts are. It is likely that if Michigan can get the word out, there will be an overwhelming burst of Foursquare users in and around the Ann Arbor area, and with Michigan as big of a school as it is, it could go viral and spur other Big Ten schools to act similarly.

If you are interested, you can follow the Michigan Wolverines on Foursquare here.

Do you believe that Michigan’s partnership with Foursquare is a good idea?

If you enjoy shopping at Gap and you are a Foursquare user, you have to be excited at the store’s latest promotion. The catch: the deal is only good for today.

For users that check in to any Gap location today, August 14, 2010, they will receive 25% off their entire in-store order. About Foursquare reports that this deal is good nationwide.

If you aren’t already on Foursquare, set up an account and head out to your Gap store to take advantage of this one-day deal. And if you’re already on the service, well, you may want to high-tail it to your closest Gap location! You can find your closest store here.