Building on the topic of social location and social check-in services (think foursquare, GoWalla) I’m convinced we need to see more participation from local businesses in order for this to succeed. I just imagined the following scenario, let’s say I’m off to Pebble Beach for a round of golf (ya, in my dreams!), then from the first T box i check-in via foursquare or similar service. The app knows what kind of mobile device I’m using so why not have a tip sent to me suggesting that I download a cool Augmented Reality app (see a video of this sample app) that will perhaps enhance my experience at the golf course! I suppose anyone can add such a tip as an official “Tip” to users that check-in… this would be useful!
On the topic of foursquare, an issue that seems to also be creeping up is the appearance of multiple occurrences of POIs… for example, a listing may be in the DB called “Loodles Coffee” and the mayor may have 50 check-ins, well, there’s nothing to stop a user from simply creating another POI called “Loodles Coffee and Art” etc… now we have multiple entries in the DB and users are confused as to which one they check in to. So far some the POI databases being used by services like foursquare are a little disappointing, often the app not recognizing where users are at the time of check-in and thus depending on the user creating the place. On the upside, a couple of new social services, PlacePop and PegShot are now on the scene and appear to offer much better default POI databases, often accurately identifying the place where the user wishes to check-in.