never used either.

haven't tried gowalla but I saw one of their vehicles on the road today.

you should try Gowalla; the devs are in Austin.

it a whirl. their "trips near you" seems really buggy. Harvard is near me?

v

gowalla.com/users/clicky...

i wondered how they would have so many austin items already.

interesting.

yea, the trips thing doesn't seem to be very localized yet. :/

I do like the move visible history of "people" at locations. That was one annoying thing about fsq.

though if it is just for your friends... fsq feels a little more pseudo-private.

I don't get the point really. Why do people need to know exactly where everyone is all the time? (says the grumpy old one!)

do they create all the "items", or is it a bit like GNE in the real-verse?

curiouskiwi: no one does... the more fun ones have game like elements and the location awareness just how you play.

I guess I like the game-like elements.

although today while playing i was acutely aware that I was telling the entire world that I was not at home...

... and inferring how long it would take me to get me based on where my current check-in was....

...so if someone knew where I lived, they could just steal everything.

If they got past Abby, of course.

yeah there is that.. but that's been true since the earliest concepts of these things.

I know!

Only publishing to non-public places would be the way to go... fsq can do that if you are careful. Gowalla, not so much.

I mean, I'm not freaking out about it, it just seems weird sometimes.

g-latitude with only your friends added etc etc.

these games would be more fun with a local circle of friends anyway.

gowalla could also get borderline stalkerish... if they know your patterns, they can look for you online first.

yea, because someone might want to track me down to ask how group invitations work. Or why the API isn't opt-outable.

argh.

does not have a critical enough mass of friends in austin that would be up to these kinds of things... one or two.

or maybe they will stalk me at Starbucks to get their camera added to the findr.

but have enjoyed amassing mayorships and badges in fsq, don't know about all these other game enhancements.

fsq is posting to my twit, but if that were friends-only, or I turned off the posting there, slightly private result (at obfuscated)

laughing at the thought of Criz being stalked to get Flickr Help.

my good local friend Eric just joined 4sq via an android phone though, maybe there is some usefulness on the horizon?

now see, if you could make your own items in Gowalla... that would be fun. Criz could leave ranbows and pandas everywhere.

rainbows even.

people could have "calling cards"... rather than a visitor history... would be more fun to decipher.

and you could change your card if someone you didn't want stalking you figured it out.

hahahah I'd love to leave pandas everywhere.

where the fuck is support for gowalla? it says i checked in somewhere that i never visited.

see. maybe Gowalla should hire me as a consultant.

you should also as a user be able to erase your history trail at any time when it becomes an issue.

yea, that's what I'm trying to do with this one site i never checked in at.

I guess i'll email them.

since twitter is down.

if need be... I can harass them in person for you.

off to go have some beverages and maybe collect this item: gowalla.com/icons/421925

though I don't know how he strayed form SF?

hahahahaah

yea, you know how to find 'em!

I also asked if they could add pandas and rainbows to drop, and left a link to our panda page.

trinkers uses foursquare. these services aren't REALLY about letting everyone constantly know where you are, that's a side effect.

the actual purpose is to get a general idea of where your friends are going and discovering new places through them.

the real-time aspect is just the simplest way of putting that information out there.

i.e. just another crowd-sourcing idea about building localized data based on user recommendations and reviews.

you could say Yelp! is a different approach to the same problem, without the real-time-on-location aspect.

though the Yelp! iphone client changed that dynamic a bit.

yelp isn't really social in the same way. you're putting out reviews to the masses more than giving your friends a semi-active heads up.

and they turned down a half billion dollars. sheesh.

that stri has not crossed paths with any yelp socialites... Oh boy do they exist.

that's different.

i'm sure there are yelp die-hards, and they collaborate and compete and interact or whatever, but that's not like sharing tips with friends.

but everyone on teh intarwebs are freindz

Zyc is are drunken?