Despite the recent launch of geolocation functionality for Facebook to United States (Places), the service foursquare continues to see users increase for their services. In Mid-July, the network announced it had passed the bar of two million users since Foursquare would register not less than 180,000 new users every 10 days.
Services ranging places or people because of their location, grow like mushrooms on the Web. This is the big trend of the Web. Facebook, the largest social network in the world (500 million followers), has understood and has just launched its own location-based service, called “Places”. It allows any user to indicate his “friends” when he is in real time, from his mobile phone.
Foursquare has distinguished itself by making fun geolocation practice. The goal is to establish a maximum check-in, “understand” signal where I am “: trendy bar, new restaurant or banal supermarket to earn badges and become” mayor “in the places (in visiting them more frequently than other users). In the U.S., many institutions even offer pizza, drinks or other treats these “virtual mayors’ privileges required!
Geotagging For what?
Geotagging allows you to simplify your life, hence the strong power of attraction. Switch on your GPS to ten little miles? See at a glance the sessions cinema nearby? Basically, the software that we use offer, in record time, a whole range of custom activities, as the place where you are.
Gainful activity.
The behemoths like Google eyeing the net before any advertising revenue that the development of LBS will generate. Word-of-mouth digital provides a highly accurate profile of consumption patterns of each user. It is a boon for all institutions likely to be geo-recommended.
What are the risks?
“Squares” introduces a novelty. The “mobile signal helps in knowing the presence of their friends in the area. If one of them did not choose to ban this according to his profile, it can be “tagged” to his knowledge. Advanced users can easily make the choice to disable geolocation of their account, but what about the others?
Alain Pannetrat, the National Commission on Informatics and Liberties (CNIL), worries about “risk on the protection of privacy that can be absolutely huge.”
At a time when the border between private and public life is reduced as a trickle on the web, to entrust whereabouts can be fun, useful in some cases, risked a lesser extent. As long as we remain free to disable the option.
In retrospect, the increased number of users of location-based service is quite impressive. On April 22, the network reached the Cape millionth registered. Then, in late June, the company announced to continue its growth by raising 20 million dollars.
At this rate, Foursquare quickly overtaking its competitors. Although Gowalla, MyTown and Loopt has already reached the figure of 3 million users but the services of foursquare is growing faster .
Dennis Crowley, Director General of Foursquare explained on August 19 in the Los Angeles Times have already reached the figure of 2.8 million users and confirms that ” 180,000 users register every 10 days . To date, the service should therefore have reached 3 million. With this growth, the company has even launched an advertising giant at the heart of New York’s Times Square …