LBS RoundUp: Gowalla API Announced, Check in Wars, Foursquare + NYTimes
Gowalla introduced its API.
WILSON KERR at Web 2.0 Journal notes that the LBS “check in” space is ROI gold. I wonder how “the old fashioned check in” is doing? That’s called the affinity card - you know the one from the grocery store or Subway or my favorite burrito place, Bolocco. What’s interesting to note is that in LBS iteration, potentially, everyone knows where you are, that is everyone who wants to advertise to you. Using the affinity cards only that organization (for starters) knows when and in which store you shopped. So, which is a better deal for the provider of the service? For the user? I can speak to the latter: if we didn’t get something back from those affinity cards, we’d not use them, and many of us have a fist full of them. So…why not get the grocery store discounts if you check in via Foursquare (or your favorite similar animal)? Would that get those who are getting “bored” with these games back on board?
On Friday it [Foursquare] will add The New York Times to the list.
In conjunction with the Winter Olympics, The Times will be offering recommendations to Foursquare users on restaurants, attractions, shopping and nightlife in Vancouver, Whistler and the nearby town of Squamish. The tips will be pulled from The Times’s travel and entertainment coverage.
Foursquare users who check in at one of the suggested venues will earn a New York Times Olympics badge, said Stacy Green, public relations manager for The New York Times Company.
