The Wikimedia Foundation announced today the addition of a new Nearby feature designed to help users discover articles about subjects relevant to their location. It’s available for both mobile and desktop.
The feature not only will help users discover interesting things about the area around them, however. It will also help the foundation improve Wikipedia, by calling on those most familiar with particular subjects to add to the articles.
“Along with the goal of bringing awareness of the surrounding areas to our existing readers, we hope that this simple tool can attract new editors to these articles, whether it is to update the information on the exhibits in a local museum, or simply to add a photo of a nearby park that is in severe need of a properly licensed lead image,” says Wikimedia Foundation mobile software engineer Jon Robson. “As a first pass, the mobile team has focused on using the Nearby page to surfaces articles in close proximity that lack images, inviting users to add one. Upon visiting those pages, the user will be prompted to illustrate the article, which they can do quickly and easily if they’re on a mobile device that supports taking and uploading photos.”
“In the future, we envision this as a useful step in the editing onboarding process, helping new users learn about editing by encouraging them to improve an article on a topic nearby,” says Robson.
The Wikimedia Foundation has announced the launch of a new GeoData extension to usher in “a new age of geotagging on Wikipedia”. Roughly translated, Wikipedia will be getting a lot more useful at the location level.
The extension for MediaWiki adds coordinates to articles to be stored separately in the database, as opposed to in wiki markup, which the foundation says makes it easy to query the coordinates of a particular page or a list of pages around a set of coordinates. The functionality will also be available via the API, so developers can utilize it in their apps.
“One of the first major uses of GeoData information will be in the experimental mode of the Wikipedia mobile site, which will allow beta users to see a list of nearby articles,” explains the Wikimedia Foundation’s Max Semenik. “We expect to release this feature into our experimental mode in the coming weeks. In the future, we also hope to build this functionality into our contribution tools: for instance, we’d like to be able to show users a map of articles needing images near their location, so that they can easily take and upload photos of subjects around them missing an illustration.”
The functionality will be supported by all Wikipedia and Wikivoyage sites. Wikipedia in English, German, Simple English and Chinese are already using it.
Google announced the launch of two new APIs for organizations who want to build their own location-enabled apps: the Google Maps Tracks API and the Google Maps Geolocation API.
The Google Maps Tracks API lets organizations build apps that can store, display and analyze GPS data on a map. It’s built on top of Google’s cloud infrastructure, and includes geo-fencing, or a virtual perimeter representing a geographic region.
The Google Maps Geolocation API lets organizations build apps or devices that determine their own location without the use of GPS, by looking up the locations of nearby wifi access points and cell towers. This can save battery life for devices, by limiting GPS usage, and it lets the device work indoors and in remote areas, according to Google.
“The Google Maps Tracks and Geolocation APIs allow an organization to develop customized location-based applications to meet specific business needs,” says Google Maps product manager Nabil Naghdy. “The Google Maps Tracks API, for example, can provide a fleet management company with tools for analyzing data from past and present deliveries. By seeing routing information on a familiar Google Map, they can determine which routes can save time and fuel. Using the Google Maps Geolocation API, the fleet management company can equip its vehicles with advanced positioning capabilities. Even in dense city blocks where GPS dropout is common, a dispatcher can still locate its fleet.”
“The Google Maps Tracks API allows businesses to take advantage of a technique called geo-fencing, where a company can create a virtual region on a map to notify a device when it enters or exits a predefined area,” adds Naghdy. “For example, the same fleet management company could set up notifications that would automatically alert drivers whenever they were 10 miles outside their delivery territory and need to turn around. Automated notifications could reduce dependence on a central dispatcher, allowing the delivery company to use their employees more efficiently.”
According to the company, over 800,000 developers use Google Maps APIs already. The new APIs will simply enable them to use rea-time location info.
It seems like everyday there’s another location-based service popping up to offer us an incentive to either broadcast our location of cash in on some exclusive deal. Sites like Foursquare and Gowalla were the focus of Pew Internet Research’s latest study. What they wanted to know is how often are people using these sites, and what demographics visit them most frequently?
This is actually Pew’s second attempt to nail down the mystery surrounding these sites, and since they first investigated the matter in May 2010, little has changed. So while there may be more sites offering location-based services, or geosocial as Pew puts it, frequency of visits remains relatively unchanged.
As you might have guessed, these geosocial services are most popular with folks from age 18 to 29, significantly higher than any other group. Still only about 8% of this population uses the services on a regular basis. Hispanics are the big winners when it comes to ethnic background, 10% of geosocial visitors fall into the demographic. Also more men in the overall population us geosocial sites (6%) than women (3%).
Check out some key findings from the report:
* 7% of adults who go online with their mobile phone use a location-based service.
* 8% of online adults ages 18-29 use location-based services, significantly more than online adults in any other age group.
* 10% of online Hispanics use these services – significantly more than online whites (3%) or online blacks (5%).
* 6% of online men use a location-based service such as Foursquare or Gowalla, compared with 3% of online women.
There’s a new trend in social media and application development, and it’s called “social discovery”. If you haven’t already heard the term a lot, you will soon. SXSW is famously an event where a lot of startups get to make their first major marks on the world. Some fizzle out. Some are Twitter. Quite a few are betting on the “social discovery” element as the next big thing. Some might simply find the whole thing a little too creepy. On the other hand, some find Google and Facebook creepy. Either way, the trend is here, and of course, there are always opportunities for businesses to take advantage.
Are you comfortable sharing personal information with people who happen to be nearby? For some of these apps that is essentially the founding principle. Tell us what you think.
The concept of social discovery is not really new. You might say it’s been a valuable part of social networks for years, and an area where some of them have improved as time has gone on. Early location-based services like Foursquare have gone on to improve the discovery part of the equation overtime. I’d say Facebook will be getting better in this department as it recently acquired one such service in Gowalla. The Gowalla team is said to be working on the Timeline feature, so that could play a big role in Facebook’s “social discovery” strategy. The Open Graph apps are certainly key.
Wikipedia’s description of a social discovery platform indicates it as one that lets users search for other users, either by physical location or by other criteria (age, name, interests, gender, etc.). Under that definition, you could include sites like Pinterest and its clones, but the physical location part seems to be more connected to the broader trend, particularly at SXSW.
Uberlife’s focus is extending online connections into the real world. It’s been available in the UK since January, but just launched here in the U.S. WebProNews interviewed CEO Sanchita Saha about the service, which she says sets it self apart from others that focus more on people discovery. “Uberlife is more about groups of people,” she says.
She says where Google+ hangouts are about hanging out online, Uberlife is more about finding groups of people to hang out with offline. “At the moment, we have no people discovery in our network. You can download the app and find out what hangouts are happening near me. What are people meeting up about around me? And that could be hangouts based around interests. It could be around a gig that you really want to go and see that’s going on nearby, and you really want to find a bunch of people to go to that with.”
You can sign up through Facebook or Twitter. It looks at your Facebook likes.
Privacy
Privacy may be an issue with some users, though they should be aware of that going in. Uberlife, for example, says it will implement features in the future that let only your friends connect with you, but right now it’s totally open. That might be a little creepy to some, and that is likely an obstacle a lot of these kinds of apps will face in terms of growing adoption.
“Right now, there is certainly an element of human nature,” where some may resist joining in hangouts, admits Saha. Particularly the more personal ones. But still, anyone in the Uberlife community can join hangouts that are going on around them.
Brands
There may be some big opportunities for brands to capitalize on this social discovery trend. Really, we’ve already happening to some extent over recent years with the rise of smartphones, and apps like Foursquare, Yelp, Urbanspoon, and even Google Places. But that goes for this new crop as well. Saha says food, drink and clothing brands have already approached the company, as well as some bands (a natural fit for such an app).
“We’ve yet to have one actually creata a hangout,” Saha says of brands. “But their interest is around being able to engage their customer base offline – or to mobile their customer base offline, in really a fun, spontaneous way that’s great for things like flash mob events.”
The main interest, she says, for brands, is that when you create a hangout, the attendee can check in, upload photos, etc. and share that stuff through Facebook and Twitter. It’s about connecting customers with each other as well, which could be helpful for the brand in the long run.
More social discovery apps
Highlight would be another one of the new apps that’s getting a lot of buzz around SXSW. This one calls itself “a fun, simple way to learn more about the people around you”. As my colleague Mike Tuttle wrote about it, “stalkers of the world rejoice.”
“If someone standing near you also has Highlight, their profile will show up on your phone,” the official description continues. “You can see their name, photos of them, mutual friends, and anything else they have chosen to share. When you meet someone, Highlight helps you see what you have in common with them. And when you forget their name at a party a week later, Highlight can help you remember it. As you go about your day, Highlight runs quietly in the background, surfacing information about the people around you. If your friends are nearby, it will notify you. If someone interesting crosses your path, it will tell you more about them.”
Highlight has been around for a little while, but it just got an update, which it being touted around SXSW. The new version tells you when people in your timeline are “still nearby”. This way, users can catch each other before they get away.
Another social discovery app, Sonar, has been available for iOS, but is now launching on Android. It’s another one designed to get users to connect with people around them. The word creepy has been tossed around with Sonar for the better part of a year.
Similarly, Glancee touts itself as a way to “discover and connect with new interesting people around you,” though interestingly, it also throws “safe” into its description. Not a lot of additional explanation is given on that note, however.
Glancee’s been around for a bit too. As has Banjo, which has a new update. Banjo alerts you about your friends when they’re nearby.
Another app, Kismet, promises to help you “easily meet new people in the real world. “We’ll tell you who you should meet, why you should meet them, and who you know in common.”
In terms of privacy, you have to think about this stuff before you start using any of these apps. If you’re not comfortable with people near you knowing about you, you probably shouldn’t be using the services. Since this is generally the main purpose for such apps, it shouldn’t be that big of a deal, because there should be this understanding going in. Of course the “cool” factor can sometimes trump common sense, and that’s not to say there is no value to be gained from “discovering” new friends, if your’e the social type. It’s not as if this is a new concept. It used to be called going out to the bar and striking up a conversation. Of course, that didn’t always end well for everyone either.
Beyond privacy, users could simply be setting themselves up for inconvenience. It probably depends on how much of a social butterfly you are. Sometimes you may want to go to a place and not have to “stop and chat” with someone who you may or may not already be friends with, just because you’re nearby.
Regardless of how you feel about these types of apps, having attended the last two SXSW Interactive events, I can tell you, the event is a perfect testing ground for this kind of thing. Austin is basically one big party, with a whole lot of things to do, great places to eat and drink, and lots of people with similar interests (of a wide variety) to hang out with.
In fact, it may give some of these apps to a misleading start, as the SXSW crowd is in this mindset. The real test will be how well such engagement holds up back in the real world when everyone goes back to their day-to-day lives.
That goes for the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, as well (while maybe not to the party extent of SXSW), where TheLoop chose to announce its new social networking site, which it describes as as “a new social discovery and broadcast network.” They chose to launch at GDC, because they are reportedly seeking app developers to create content for a new site, rather than “overly-saturated existing platforms.”
But it just goes to show that “social discovery” is the big buzz word, and a major area of focus for startups these days.
SXSW is credited with the launches (or at least big coming out parties) of both Twitter and Foursquare. Will one of the new crop of “social discovery” similarly get its big break at the event this year? Can such a service have such an impact? What do you think?
Foursquare announced an update with some new features for its BlackBerry app today. The improvements mainly come to the “Explore” feature.
“Every time you find a place with Explore, we find the right recommendations for you, based on where you’ve been, lists you follow, time of day, and the 1,500,000,000 check-ins from the foursquare community,” the company explains in a blog post. “With this new version, we share more of the logic with you. You’ll also see pricing information, photos, tips, and friends who have been there right in the results.”
“With the new Explore filters, you can find whatever type of adventure you’re craving, whether it’s places you’ve never been or places your friends love,” the company adds. “Need a recommendation near home and not work? Now you can get recommendations for anywhere in the world.”
It also comes with menus from over 250,000 U.S. restaurants, as part of Foursquare’s partnership with SinglePlatform announced last month.
The app can be found in BlackBerry App World here.
I write this with no intent of spreading any rumors or sensationalizing the situation. There is nothing indicating that the two companies are in talks about an acquisition, but from the sound of it, Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley is not ruling it out.
Laura Goode at All Things Digital interviewed Crowley. On the possibility of an acquisition, she quotes Crowley as saying, “I wouldn’t disqualify anything. The thing that’s important to us is doing the things we want to do, which could be partnering with someone, or it could be continuing to grow the product independently.”
That is not exactly saying, “No, we’re not for sale.” For that matter, it doesn’t mean that Google, would be the winner of an acquisition, if in fact Foursquare is for sale. However, the interview is largely about Crowley’s relationship with Google, and how he has been talking with Googlers, including business development Googlers.
Here are some things to consider.
Facebook, with whom Google has a growing rivalry with, just acquired Gowalla, which has typically been thought of as the closest competitor to Foursquare, or at least was in the early days before the tech giants started offering check-ins.
Crowley’s pre-Foursquare project Dodgeball was acquired by Google, though it ended up falling apart and getting shut down. Foursquare, however, has already proven to be a success, and Google has enough products now that it could help it even more. Think Google Offers, Google Wallet, Google+, and even Android (not to mention a pending acquisition of Motorola Mobility). Google has gotten a lot more social and a lot more mobile since the Dodgeball days.
Crowley’s relationship with Google has reportedly been a bit rocky at times in the past, but as indicated in his interview with Goode, it is quite improved. In fact, as we reported back in March from SXSW, Crowley said that Google would be a great partner if the timing was right.
So, to be clear, I’m not saying an acquisition is inevitable, but it doesn’t seem out of the question. I’d be surprised if at the very least, we don’t see continued integrations of Foursquare and Google Products.
Note: Image at the top is actually Crowley playing Foursquare at SXSW.
As you may know, Gowalla was acquired by Facebook. The news has been ciculating since Friday. Gowalla made the official announcement on its blog today, however, and is driving home the fact that Facebook is not acquiring user data. Also, Gowalla will be shut down as a standalone service.
We created Gowalla to inspire people to go out and share those places, photos and stories. The past three years have been quite the journey, oft-times in a very literal sense!
The Gowalla Passport has become a record of all the places we’ve visited, the people we were with, the photos we took, and the stories we told. Many of you even use Gowalla like a scrapbook of sorts — a place to keep all those memories.
About two months ago, my co-founder Scott and I attended F8. We were blown away by Facebook’s new developments. A few weeks later Facebook called, and it became clear that the way for our team to have the biggest impact was to work together. So we’re excited to announce that we’ll be making the journey to California to join Facebook!
Gowalla, as a service, will be winding down at the end of January. We plan to provide an easy way to export your Passport data, your Stamp and Pin data (along with your legacy Item data), and your photos as well. Facebook is not acquiring Gowalla’s user data.
We know how much many of you loved Gowalla. It’s been the highlight of our lives as we’ve built it with your help over the past two years. As we move forward, we hope some of the inspiration behind Gowalla — a fun and beautiful way to share your journey on the go — will live on at Facebook.
Williams reiterated in a tweet:
@jw Josh WilliamsFWIW — Neither Gowalla’s user or place data was acquired. More on this when today’s dust settles. 🙂2 hours ago via Twitter for Mac · powered by @socialditto
There was initially some concern about Facebook getting user data, so we provided a how-to for deleting your Gowalla profile, but it appears this won’t be much of an issue.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Facebook getting Gowalla could mean one of two things. One less competitor for Foursquare, or a much stronger competitor to Foursquare from Facebook.
Mobile commerce startup Zaarly announced today that it has closed a $14 million Series A round of funding led by Kleiner Perkins. They also announced that they’ve added Meg Whitman to their board. Whitman, of course, is the President and CEO of HP, and spent ten yeasras as President and CEO of eBay.
“Conceived and built from the ground up in less than three months, with funding from Ashton Kutcher and LightBank (Groupon’s founders), Zaarly has taken the country by storm with more than $6.8 million in service and product listings in cities such as New York, San Francisco and Chicago,” a Zaarly representative tells WebProNews.
Zaarly lets consumers buy and sell with people near them. A buyer tells Zaarly what they want, naming a price and a need, then others in the vicinity resound with offers – an interesting mix of location and e-commerce.
“Just as consumers once left off-line marketplaces to join online marketplaces such as eBay, Craigslist and Amazon, they’re now migrating to mobile marketplaces, like Zaarly,” says Whitman. “Mobile, local marketplaces will shift how people buy and sell goods, services, and experiences. This is the next generation of ecommerce.”
“No one understands the process of creating and growing marketplaces better than Meg Whitman and we’re thrilled to have her on the team,” said Zaarly CEO and co-founder Bo Fishback. “As we expand our local marketplaces across the globe, we’re fortunate to have Meg share with us her in-depth understanding of eCommerce and wisdom around company-building.”
Zaarly says that in its first five months, nearly $6.5 million in requests have been posted on the service, and that New York, San Francisco, and Kansas City each topped half a million dollars in listings.
Zaarly is available as an iPhone or Android app, but it’s also available as a mobile site.
What do you think? Does this service have the potential to be the next eBay?
Today, Apple released their highly-anticipated iOS 5 update. To a lesser degree of buzz, Foursquare released an update to their app, version 4.0. And it looks like Foursquare v4.0 is going to make good use of that iOS 5 update.
With v4.0 comes Radar, a new feature that basically operates as location-based recommendations and notifications for your mobile device. Before I talk about what Radar does, it’s important to note that Radar is only available right now for iOS devices running the brand new iOS 5.
Foursquare says that “it helps you discover more about the world.” It definitely looks like it could give you more ideas about what to do given your current location. With Radar, Foursquare will notify you when you are in the area of something that’s happening.
For instance, let’s say that I added a new Indian restaurant to my to-do list on the app. Radar now reminds me when I am in the vicinity. It works in the same way with the new Foursquare Lists feature. If I follow a list, for instance “Best Irish Bars in Chicago,” Foursquare Radar will notify me when I am near one of the bars on that list.
Radar will also let me know if my friends are getting together nearby, based on their check-ins. This way I can join up with them if I would like, or maybe stop by and crash the party – if you want to look at it like that.
Once you turn on the new Radar feature, it will begin notifying you about all your best location-based options – the app doesn’t have to be open.
Speaking at a tech event in April, Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley talked about the future of the company, saying that he wanted things to be more passive than active. Instead of having to open up the app and do all the work of searching your list, and checking out your friends’ activity, Foursquare could suggest things to the user.
This definitely looks like a part of that overall plan. Radar makes it so that the world of Foursquare can exist outside the app.
When you download the new v4.0, you’ll notice another huge change for Foursquare: the ball in the logo is now green. “Nobody freak out,” they say. “Say goodbye to purple balls.”
If you’re a user of Foursquare, it’s highly likely that you’ve created an entry for your home on the service’s network. I mean, most people are at their home more than they are at any other location, and if you love to check-in, you probably want to check in at your house.
But some users might worry about listing their personal residence on a public service.
Foursquare is hoping to alleviate any trepidations that might come with listing your private address by rolling out new privacy features for Homes.
Currently, venues marked “Home” are treated like any other venue – as in they are visible to everyone using the app. Now, Foursquare is making it so that the specific addresses of venues tagged “Home” are only visible to your friends.
To make sure your home venue is private to you and your friends, choose Home as the venue’s primary category. Doing this will ensure that only you and your friends can see the address on the venue page; everyone else sees a zoomed out map with no map pin (rather than the real location). If a Mayorship, badge unlock, or check-in is shared to Twitter or Facebook, the venue URL will include a map without a specific location for everyone.
For instance, my home as seen by my friends (note the map pin and actual address on the left) –
And this is my home as seen by everyone else –
“Since this is a home, the exact location is not shared here. This map is of the approximate area.”
Users will be able to go in and edit the settings of their “Home” venue, including making sure that it is set to private and categorizing their home as something else (say a speakeasy?). Users will also be able to remove their home from the Foursquare network entirely.
Gowalla announced that it is going in a new direction today at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference.
Gowalla, which began as a check-in app, now views check-ins as “transactional”. The company says it wanted to do something faster, more connected and memorable. MG Siegler, who describes the new Gowalla as being all about travel and storytelling, explains:
When you load up Gowalla, the first thing you see is still a main activity feed. Here you’ll find the activity from your friends. Because Gowalla isn’t completely pivoting away from their core location functionality, much of the data and social connections remain intact. But instead of a stream of check-ins, you’ll notice people hanging out together. They’re checking-in, but they’re also taking pictures and talking to one another in clusters that are known as “Stories”.
There is also a Guides feature, which provides travel guides (25 at launch) from various partners, including: Disney Parks, National Geographic, Stanford, University of Texas, University of Florida, and University of Oklahoma.
@jw Josh WilliamsBlown away by the response this morning to what we’ve built with your help. It’ll all be live soon!1 hour ago via Tweetbot for iPhone · powered by @socialditto
In May, Beyond put out an infographic showing how social location app are used. They found that 90% of users check in on Facebook, while 22% check in on Foursquare and just 6% on Gowalla. That’s a good reason for Gowalla to focus less on the check-in element, although even Foursquare would gladly admit that there is much more to be done around the check-in. The check-in itself is not the endgame.
Pew Internet has released new data about American adults who use location-based services. “We find that 28% of adults use at least one of the key location-service opportunities that exist in mobile and social media spaces and by far the most popular is using mobile phones for maps, directions, or recommendations,” a spokesperson tells WebProNews. “Smartphone owners really stand out as a cohort that enjoy and use location services.”
5% of cell phone owners use their phones to check in to locations using geosocial services like Foursquare or Gowalla, according to the report. 12% of smartphone owners use these services on their phones.
Interestingly, 9% of Internet users set up social media services like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn so location is automatically added to their posts.
“Americans are not currently all that eager to share explicitly their location on social media sites, but they are taking advantage of their phones’ geolocation capabilities in other ways,” said Kathryn Zickuhr, Pew Internet Project research specialist and co-author of the report. “Smartphone owners are using their phones to get fast access to location-relevant information on-the-go.”
Smartphone owners, younger users and “non-whites” have higher-than-average rates of using location services, Pew says, sharing the following stats:
55% of smartphone owners have used a location-based information service to get directions, recommendations, or other information based on their current location.
58% of smartphone owners use at least one of these services.
Smartphone owners ages 18-49 are more likely than those over 50 to use either geosocial or location-based services on their phones. There are no significant differences among social media users by age in regard to automatic location-tagging.
Hispanics are the most active in these two activities, with a quarter (25%) of Latino smartphone owners using geosocial services and almost a third (31%) of Latino social media users enabling automatic location-tagging. However, though only 7% of white smartphone owners use geosocial services, 59% get location-based information on their phones, compared with 53% of blacks and 44% of Hispanics.
With the Deals space becoming much more integrated with the location-based service space, I would expect that more and more people in all groups will use location-based services.
Foursquare has officially attracted their biggest name yet, as the leader of the free world joined the service yesterday evening.
No, President Obama won’t be battling people for mayorships, as this is an official White House account. I’m sure that’s for the best – an Obama personal Foursquare account might qualify as a security risk.
The White House announced the news on their blog –
The White House is now on Foursquare, a location-based social networking website, which is the latest way for you to engage with the administration. There are over 10 million people already “checking in” around the world, and now you’ll be able to discover “tips” from the White House featuring the places President Obama has visited, what he did there, plus historical information and more.
The White House has joined Foursquare amidst a huge Midwest bus tour where the President has been holding town hall meetings to discuss the economy. If you visit the White House’s new Foursquare profile page, you’ll see the first tip they’ve left – for “Lower Hannah’s Bend Park” in Cannon Falls, MN. Yesterday he led a gathering of over 500 people at the park.
If you follow the White House on Foursquare you can expect “tips” about locations that President Obama has visited as well as special check-in opportunities.
Maybe The White House can make use of the brand new Foursquare Lists feature unveiled yesterday. You know, “Presidential Hotspots,” “Best Rose Gardens,” or “Best DC BBQ Places.” Will you follow The White House on Foursquare? Let us know in the comments.
Groupon and Foursquare have teamed up to bring Groupon Now deals to Foursquare users. It’s been known that the two companies were working together, but now users (and businesses) can reap the benefits.
“Groupon Now!, our real-time deal platform, continues to launch across the country – we’re up to 25 markets! – and we’ve heard from lots of you that Now! is your favorite new way to cure boredom,” Julie M. tells users on the Groupon blog. “Thanks again for updating your app and giving the service a try. Our product innovations are largely sparked by feedback from our customers and merchants; this was a marriage of both that is more than just changing the way people shop…it’s becoming an addiction.”
“As you get out and explore your city, just peruse participating Groupon merchants on foursquare, from lunch spots to live events, and purchase your Now! deal to apply immediately to your purchase,” she says. “Groupon Now! features the same high quality merchants you’ve come to expect from us, and we have thousands lined up in each Now! city ready to celebrate your foursquare addiction.”
Foursquare is not the first check-in service to utilize Groupon Now. Loopt announced it was working with Groupon on Groupon Now alerts back in May. Foursquare, however, is kind of the poster child for the check-in app space, so this new deal could really help Groupon push its Groupon Now service.
Back in March, just before SXSW, Foursquare announced a partnership with American Express that would see card users getting discounts, by checking in at stores, restaurants, etc. They began testing in Austin, where those who linked their AmEx and Foursquare accounts could spend at least $5 at a local merchant, and get a $5 savings applied to their monthly statement.
“When we launched, the response was overwhelmingly positive. So, after SxSW, we sat down with American Express to plot the future,” writes Foursquare Director of Business Development Tristan Walker on the Foursquare blog. “Today, we’re happy to announce that the partnership is going national. Across the whole country, at select merchants, you can now check-in with foursquare, pay with your American Express card, and get big savings on your monthly statement.”
“Our national launch with foursquare reflects our continued focus on digital innovation aimed at bringing value to cardmembers and merchants where they’re already engaged and focused,” says Ed Gilligan, Vice Chairman at American Express. “The success of our pilot just a few months ago proved that American Express’ digital capabilities and foursquare’s expanding application created something extremely powerful. We’re thrilled to take this partnership to the next level. For us, this is just the beginning.”
“Partnering with American Express to offer Specials to their millions of cardmembers on a nationwide basis not only allows us to provide a completely seamless redemption experience to both users and merchants, it also enables merchants to really measure the success of their offline marketing efforts with foursquare,” said Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley. “The load-to-card functionality of the Smart Offer APIs provides the millions of American Express merchants with an effortless way to serve up Specials to our more than 10 million users.”
At SXSW, we interviewed Foursquare Director of Business Development Eric Friedman, who talked about the partnership a bit (while Crowley played an actual game of Foursquare in the background):
To take advantage, simply link your accounts, check in at participating stores and tap “load to card” on the Special in Foursquare, and pay with your AmEx card. They’re kicking off the launch with stores H&M (where you can spend $75 and get $10 back) and Sports Authority (where you can spend $50 and get $20 back). On the Foursquare blog, they also talk about several New York restaurants who are already offering specials.
Loopt has an interesting new spin on the hot deals space. The company has announced a product called U-Deals, which essentially gets the consumer (You, or “U” – get it?) to create the deal, including the discount, and then use Loopt to try to get the business to turn the deal into a reality. Intriguing concept. It will be interesting to see if it’s successful.
“Loopt u-Deals are for great for people who have been craving a deal at their favorite local place or somewhere they’ve wanted to try,” a Loopt representative tells WebProNews. “It’s also a strong deal alternative for the construction worker getting manicure deals or the vegetarian receiving steakhouse deals.”
Loopt says there are three basic steps:
1. Request a deal.
2. Share your requested deal with as many people as you can (email, Twitter, Facebook, the works) and get them to sign up for the deal.
3. Loopt will contact the business and try to make it happen. If the business approves, you all get the deal and some u-Deals will remain open for purchase.
Anyone can purchase an approved u-Deal, the company says.
“Loopt u-Deals are truly a team effort – deal creators, their friends and family, Loopt, and local merchants all come together to make them happen,” said Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO, Loopt. “If we can continue to make local business connections simple, fun and rewarding for mobile users, we’ll start to see much stronger social ties within local communities nationwide.”
Watch our recent interview with Altman here:
Loopt is working with group-buying platform ChompOn to process the u-Deals purchases.
The U-Deals are starting in the San Francisco Bay area, and at launch, Loopt’s Android app will have u-Deals and the ability to request a deal. The functionality will also soon come to the iPhone.
Loopt, which announced a new partnership with Groupon last week to provide users with Groupon Now alerts, is sharing some of its own usage stats. “We just hit 14,000 Qs answered in the Bay Area,” Loopt Corporate Communications Manager Sharon Howell tells WebProNews. “The service is currently limited to the Bay Area, but we’ll soon be expanding nationwide.”
The company has put together a little infographic looking at how its Loopt Qs service is taking off and a specific question/answer example:
The service itself was revealed on April 20 and officially launched on May 9 as a way to get “local information you actually want” while you’re on the go. “Because think about it: most people aren’t really standing on the corner looking for the best new Japanese restaurant in town…they’re sitting in a restaurant, watching the Sushi boats float by, holding the menu and scratching their head over what to order,” explained Loopt. “The reality is: in a city like San Francisco, most places are worth going to. It’s what you do when you get there – that’s the information you need.”
“That’s why we created Qs, a fun, really social way to get bite-sized insider info and share your own opinions about a local place,” the company added. “Now, with Loopt, you can uncover and share local insights about the places around you, giving you the inside scoop about what people are doing at the places nearby—right now in real time—exposing a radar of activity around you.”
It’s not off to a bad start, considering the geographic limitations it currently has, it will be interesting to see how usage expands along with geographic expansion. The Groupon partnership should help Loopt in general, which could in turn help this particular offering.
Of course the Groupon Now offering is only available in Chicago, currently, but that will be expanded in time as well.
It was only a matter of time. The check-in app and daily deals spaces continue to merge, and this time it looks like the poster children for both spaces are joining forces.
Foursquare and Groupon are partnering, according to a report from All Things D’s Liz Gannes, who cites “multiple sources familiar with the matter”. She also shared the following statement from a Groupon spokeswoman:
“We see a lot of potential for Groupon Now! to be showcased via services like Loopt. No bigger picture to announce yet, but stay tuned for additional collaborations.”
So we don’t know exactly when we will see a product come of this, but it will most likely be pretty soon. A few days ago, location-based service Loopt announced a partnership with Groupon , which will see the new Groupon Now service being used by Loopt customers (in Chicago for now, but expanding in the near term) to get alerts on deals based on their location.
It seems highly likely that we’ll continue to see more and more of this kind of partnership. Expect Groupon to get on as many location-based services/check-in apps as possible to expand to as many new customers as possible as the deals space gets more competitive. Location is an obvious indication of deal relevance. The company even acquired a location-based service company in Pelago (makers of Whrrl). Simply put, location makes Groupon more valuable to consumers. Expect Groupon’s competitors to employ a similar strategy.
At the same time, the location-based service companies like Foursquare will continue to look for ways to not only stand out from the crowd, but offer consumers real value beyond the novelty of the check-in game. Foursquare already has an edge up on its competitors in this department, as it has steadily been making itself more appealing by offering businesses new ways to entice consumers. Foursquare and others check-in service will also continue to find new partnerships (that includes with Groupon’s competitors). Google is even letting Google Places users import Foursquare data.
The ways in which the deals players are able to deliver relevant deals will be the the main factor that drives their success in the space, and that is prcisely why it is key for Groupon to get out there on as many platforms as possible, as it is facing some stiff up and coming competition from the likes of companies like Facebook and Google who have tremendous advantages in the delivery department. Facebook has the ever-popular News Feed, and Google has search (not to mention Place Pages, email, and a variety of other weapons at its disposal, depending on how its strategy for Google Offfers develops).
Groupon and Loopt have partnered to to give Loopt users access to alerts from Groupon’s recently launched Groupon Now service. “The big thing Loopt brings to this is location-specific alerts,” Loopt Corporate Communications Manager Sharon Howell tells WebProNews. “Loopt’s Reward Alerts feature integrates nicely with Groupon Now’s time-limited deals. With Loopt, Groupon fans can get the deals based on their current location (so as Groupon Now expands, you can get them when you travel to a different city, for instance).”
Groupon Now announced 9 days ago for Groupon’s hometown of Chicago (actually launched today), which is also where it is currently available for Loopt users. It provides realtime offers to users on their mobile devices based on their location. This ad from Groupon sums up what the service is all about:
“We built Reward Alerts into Loopt so that people could opt in to extremely targeted, time-limited deals. Loopt is the only service that can notify you of these deals based on your current location without even opening the app,” says the company says in a blog post.
Users will get once-a-day location-based Groupon Now deal alerts. They’ll also be able to use Loopt’s existing features to spread the word, plan get-togethers around the deals, etc.
While it’s only available in Chicago for the time being, Loopt plans to offer the service nationwide. Of course Groupon doesn’t even offer it nationwide yet, so there’s no telling when that will be.
The service is available for iPhone and Android users.
It’s pretty clear that we’re going to continue to see the location-based service and offers spaces merge. There’s little doubt that we will see more and more partnerships of this type. Groupon even recently acquired Pelago, the makers of the check-in app, Whrrl. You can pretty much count on Groupon competitors like Facebook and Google getting their deals/offers products integrated across various check-in apps.
The winners in the check-in app space will be the companies that can provide the most value to consumers. The deal and aggregation of not only deals, but relevant deals is going to be key moving forward. That relevancy factor is going to give both Facebook and Google their respective edges, but in different ways. Google knows your search activity (among other things) and Facebook knows your friends and your interests. Combine these factors with location, and there are some pretty powerful opportunities for advertisers.
Facebook is making changes that make it easier for businesses to manage their Facebook presence and get customers to engage.
InsideFacebook reports that Facebook has confirmed with them that it has started bringing Facebook Places functionality (including Check-In Deals) to Facebook Pages that have street addresses. Local businesses, pay attention.
Josh Constine says: “Facebook tells us this automatic merge of Pages and Places ‘makes things easier for Page administrators’. We agree that it is a better solution than the now removed option to manually merge Places with Pages. By expanding the number of Pages that can run Checkin Deals, Facebook may be looking to drive user awareness and engagement with the product and earn money off of it through ads promoting the incentives.”
Local is an increasingly competitive space right now, and businesses have more and more ways to reach consumers online and through mobile devices than ever before. What will be particularly interesting to me is to see how this plays out with regards to competition with Google, which has essentially taken the place of yellow pages for many consumers.
Facebook is certainly not new to business pages, but the increased functionality, stacked up to new and forthcoming features for Google’s Place Pages, means more direct competition as the go-to place for consumers to look up local business info, find deals, and even check in. Add to that, the fact that Bing continues to expand on its own Facebook integration and has made some big deals to greatly expand its mobile presence (via Microsoft partnerships with Nokia and RIM), and Google may end up feeling the heat from that angle as well.
