UberLocation - Latest Comments

Re: A Tale of Two Apps: Unsocial and LikeOurselves

AVillageOfHockey — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 13:43:10 -0000

By the way, on likeourselves, you can meet 'before' you leave the house as well as in the venue. Also, we have a 'dual hi' feature which means you mutually confirm a conversation.

More information on meeting before you leave the house here: http://blog.likeourselves.c...

A story on the mutual confirmation feature here: http://blog.likeourselves.c...

Re: Why Foursquare Doesn’t Have Messaging

Dan — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 05:52:52 -0000

if you dont like messaging just unactivate it or dont read your messages...
dont wish some feature other people might like not to exist just because you dont like it, its a nonsense...

Re: BrightKite Becomes A Messenger

Michael Bauser — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:34:03 -0000

I've had a Brightkite account for a couple of years, and I can tell you that the "2 million users" number is misleading. Most of Brightkite's users aren't using Brightkite -- they're using some other service (like ping.fm or Hellotxt) that broadcasts status updates to multiple networks. In effect, they're using Brightkite's "pipes," but they're not interacting with the service. Users who don't interact with a service aren't monetizable. (I bet a lot of them won't even notice Brightkite going dark!)

Anyway, there's still a lot left mysterious about Brightkite's new direction. They say they're dumping checkins, but keeping location, and their sample screenshots show location-tagged text messages. Will they continue to use their database, or work off somebody else's API? Will they continue their badges/contests program? (I just today received $5 cash from a Brightkite badge contest, and the included letter told me "lots more coming soon!") Is photo-sharing still part of the service? Brightkite isn't saying, and even if they did, I don't know if I'd trust them. They have a history of saying one thing to users and doing the opposite.

(Meanwhile, there's a Foursquare commercial running on Bravo as I type. That reminds me another of Brightkite's problems: They couldn't promote themselves worth a damn. They always said they had hundreds of merchants and companies ready to sign deals, but few materialized.)

Re: Is Gowalla 3.0 for iPhone a Sign of a Pivot?

Michael Bauser — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 10:24:53 -0000

It's only a "pivot" if you're ditching your primary feature/product for a product/feature that was unexpectedly more sucessful. Gowalla hasn't demonstrated that any of its features have been standouts. Even its hyped "Highlights" feature has been seriously underutilized by the userbase.

Either way, suddenly becoming the service to "managing location sharing across services" can't be a real pivot, because it's a new feature. That's just desperate reinvention to get attention. The "multi-service user" market is always going to be smaller than the amount of people who use location services, because most people aren't going to worry about multiple services. Gowalla is betting on a small, obsessive userbase. That might work if that userbase is demonstrably more valuable than single-service users, but I've haven't seen any evidence of that.

Re: SmartFuel Location-based Transaction Data

George P. Sibble — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:41:49 -0000

Appreciate the kind words. We're very excited about the upcoming release of SmartFuel. An even more interesting feature is that we use patented algorithms to find stations along a route as opposed to within a simple radius, making saving that much easier. Post any questions you might have and I'll get in some responses.

Re: Coke Zero Livecycle

C Christiansen — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 16:08:57 -0000

Its coming.

Re: Checking In on a Desktop

Michael Bauser — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 14:09:17 -0000

There is no good reason to allow desktop checkins. None of the competition does, and it would make cheating easier.

Who the hell are these imaginary people who have laptops with them all the time, but not cell phones? Oh yeah, they don't exist. And even if they did, they would check in so seldom as to be an irrelevant demographic.

Also, Cody Barbierri is a consistently shallow and ill-informed analyst. I wouldn't take leasd from him if I were you.

Re: Untappd’s Anti-app

Keroacaf — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:20:46 -0000

You should also evaluate RedPint: www.redpint.com when talking about social apps for craft beer. Based on what is trending on untappd now for beer, it doesn't seem like their user base is really into craft beer. (Bud Light, Blue Moon, Stella etc.) Big suprise these mega-beers are trending, I am so shocked. So to say this app is for Craft Beer is a bit premature. I don't even think the guys that created are into craft beer or know much about the industry based on their checkins. just sayin'

Re: Footfeed: Multi-service LBS Client

Michael Bauser — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:17:03 -0000

Your hypothesis is stupid.

1) Tweetdeck and the rest didn't begin as multi-network applications. Most of them were Twitter-specfic apps that added Facebook and the rest later.

2) Third-party Twitter apps were able to thrive because Twitter didn't have an official app. That's not the case with Foursquare and the rest of the geolocation apps.

3) The only people who need multi-network apps are sad dorks, anyway. If you investigate the needs of average social network users, you'll find most of only have two networks in their daily life, Facebook and "something else." If you think Tweetdeck is a typical user's app, you're way too close to the scene to have perspective

Re: Nokia adds Check In to Ovi Maps

M Nazaar Agung Jaya — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 10:44:42 -0000

please support for symbian 3rd for ovi maps 3.04 ... add check in to ovi maps

Re: Nokia adds Check In to Ovi Maps

M Nazaar Agung Jaya — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 10:40:36 -0000

Please support for symbian 3rd ... add check in for ovi maps 3.04 or update version for symbian 3rd

Re: ‘Maps’: Judge’s Pick on SearchForTheObvious

bunkywu — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 21:54:42 -0000

Congrats and thanks again for the wonderful submission Aaron!

Re: Should Foursquare sell to Yahoo

uberlocation — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:39:34 -0000

You're absolutely correct. Didn't realize that I was reporting on an old post until after I wrote the post. Thank you and @aboutfoursquare for pointing this out.

However, it didn't make sense 6 mo ago and it doesn't make sense now.

Re: Should Foursquare sell to Yahoo

Michael Bauser — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:27:06 -0000

Dude, that article is from April. Acquisition didn't happen.

Nobody really thinks Crowley is looking for the big sell out; he got one baby killed that way (selling Dodgeball to Google), and Yahoo has a even worse record with acquisitions and new ideas lately.

Yahoo bought Kropol instead, and, six months later, still hasn't done anything with it. Bartz doesn't know what the hell she's doing.

Re: Foursquare Down Time

uberlocation — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:55:01 -0000

if you're curious, here's what happened yesterday...straight from foursquare's mouth http://blog.foursquare.com/...

Re: Campuses: a Gateway for LBS Adoption

uberlocation — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:03:16 -0000

related: interesting profile on Campus Community, the social network from Columbia University that ultimately lost out to Facebook

http://www.slate.com/id/226...

Re: Why Foursquare Doesn’t Have Messaging

uberlocation — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 09:54:38 -0000

I think it really comes down to: how does foursquare think of itself/want it users to think of it. Is foursquare a complete social network that comes with all the things that a social network should come with--including messaging, blocking, privacy settings etc. Or does is it just a really good location layer, that's made to interact with your online persona via more traditional means: facebook messaging, twitter, email, sms etc.

So far...looks like that latter. But this is certainly a debate among foursquare users and probably an internal debate at foursquare.

Re: Why Foursquare Doesn’t Have Messaging

Michael Bauser — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:45:44 -0000

I sincerely hope that Foursquare never adds messaging. I need another inbox in my life like I need a hole in the head. Unfortunately, it's fairly common request from Foursquare's lamer customers, so I'm afraid they may add it anyway.

The "usefulness" of messaging depends. I suppose, on whether you use Foursquare for strong connections (people you know well enough to give direct contact info, like your phone number) or weak connections (casual/online friends). Foursquare was originally intended for keeping up (and meeting up) with strong connections, but a fair number of users are interested in the weak connections.

The mildly ironic thing is that many of Foursquare's competitors (Gowalla, Brightkite, and Whrrl) all have internal messaging systems of one sort or another, but they're not nearly as popular as Foursquare. Sometimes I wish all those lamers asking for another inbox would just go join the networks that do what they want.

Re: Google’s LBS Plan: Installed Devices?

uberlocation — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 14:33:59 -0000

Google Mailing SMB Owners Check In Devices? http://smallbiztrends.com/2...

Re: The Arcade Fire’s “The Wilderness Downtown” Interactive Film

uberlocation — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:41:34 -0000

Check out this very cool post from Mr. doob's blog on the "Making of The Wilderness Downtown" http://mrdoob.com/blog/post...