LaptopMemo | Tech & Then Some

So let me get this straight: we still use Foursquare? It was a new and aspiring service that you could sign up for, download the app to your iPhone/Android/Windows Phone, and “check-in” to places, become the “mayor” of that said venue, and get bragging rights among your friends, as well as leave tips about what you think of said establishment. At first, this all seemed revolutionary, but the love-affair with Foursquare may be drawing to an close.

Just what is the point now with “checking-in” and telling my friends? Sure, yours truly has a Foursquare account, and I have great friends in it, like Kevin Rose, John Biggs, Joel Johnson, and Kate Gardiner to name a few. But after more than a year of being in the spotlight, where’s the innovation? Where’s the “ooh” and “ah” that we want to see in a shiny, new company with tons of potential? In a desperate attempt it seems to keep the service “cool” Foursquare management has struck deals with some big-name stores (and smaller businesses), allowing you to become mayor and get coupons — for perilously little amounts. This may encourage more visits and traffic for the venue, but what of the end user?

So I can see where my friend was 30 minutes ago? When I could just use Twitter, Facebook, an SMS, or dare I say, an email, phone call, or actually seeing my “friend”? Foursquare is not a dying service; they’re running out of innovative and fresh ideas it seems. And when you run out of ideas, you soon run out everything you had, in one fell swoop.

So we all still use Foursquare? For what, “keeping up with your friends”? Tell me Foursquare (even on my own FS account) what’s your purpose of “discovering new places” now anyway? Haven’t I become mayour of enough places already, with little to no benefit to me, the end user, whatsoever?