Earlier this year, Foursquare, created by Dennis Crowly, changed its platform from being solely available in a locality to being global in scope. Users are able to check in from anywhere. Their friends then were able to know exactly where they were. Foursquare calls them venues and people are able to earn points and badges for it. Users are able to update their Facebook and Twitter statuses as well. The popularity of the application is growing rapidly.
Facebook has been the titan of the social networking world since its inception. Other sites, such as Myspace and Twitter, pall in comparision. Myspace has simply fallen to the wayside in terms of popularity. Zuckerberg and company have lead the site through many controversies (Newsfeed, Applications, Status Updates, Database listing) to revolutionise the world. They missed the boat with Foursquare.
Then again, It was wiser for them to not on. Facebook users are able to update where they are but not able pinpoint the location. This may be due to the security issues with Facebook. I personally worry about what information I can and cannot post on my page. After the learning of the database listing, I removed all of my favourite things from my page. No one knows what information is accessible to third parties and what is not. There have been stories of people not being hired or fired from jobs because of something on Facebook. People have been arrested and parties broken up because of information obtained via Facebook. It can be expected of a social networking site with 500 million users. Foursquare though is smaller, with roughly half a million users. It does not have to worry, yet, about such security issues. That also means something like Foursquare would be impossible for Facebook to create itself.
What will Facebook do? Like the other Crowley idea, Dodgeball, Foursquare will eventually be brought down. Google did the same thing to Dodgeball, which ceased existing in 2009. It is not like Facebook does not have the money. Microsoft bought 1.6% of Facebook for $246 million. Zuckerberg#SYMBOL f “WP TypographicSymbols”61s dream is worth close to $15 billion by some estimates. Facebook will simply launch their own version of Foursquare or buy Foursquare. Rumour has it that Crowley turned down their buyout. Regardless, Facebook stays on top of the social networking world. After all, Most major companies now say go to their Facebook page, not their website.
