2011: The Year the Check-in Died

So two points here:<p>1) Usage on foursquare is up 40% since the beginning of the year.<p>2) We've always seen the checkin as just the beginning of what we want to accomplish. With the launch of explore and specials 2.0 we've started to get more of our vision out into the world. You can expect more of this sort of thing from us over the course of 2011.<p>-harryh, engineering lead @ foursquare.<p>ps: Want to be a part of it? We're hiring! <a href="https://foursquare.com/jobs/" rel="nofollow">https://foursquare.com/jobs/</a>

Foursquare is something that became wildly popular at the same time smart phones were becoming more and more ubiquitous. It is a cool sort of "Hey check out what my new phone can do" kind of tool.<p>As smart phones are becoming more the standard and less the shiny-new-thing, though, Foursquare and the like are turning out to not actually provide that much value, and are losing their stickiness.

Personally, I think that 4sq should have taken up the acquisition offer that it supposedly had.<p>No matter how much they try and innovate and launch new features, the premise of 'checking in' is forcing a user behavior - and sooner or later, checkin fatigue is going to set in. Just like most other shiny things, the shimmer wears off real quick.

While the article raises some valid points, I question the use of compete.com figures to make any claims about foursquare's declining traffic.

Location based checkin sites are basically games. The problem is that, like all games, people eventually get tired of them and move on to something else.

Foursquare reminds me of this fake RPG called Progress Quest[1]. It's like SETI@Home, but for RPGs. In other words you do nothing while it automatically advances progress bars on the screen and your character advances and there is nothing else to it. Ironically, a lot of people actually wind up running it for quite some time, myself included, but then the joke ends and they stop. To me, it seems inevitable the same will come of Foursquare.<p>[1] <a href="http://progressquest.com/" rel="nofollow">http://progressquest.com/</a>

Declaring a whole class of new and growing startups as "dead" is the most hipster thing I can imagine: Checking in? I guess. <i>I</i> haven't checked into a venue since 2010.<p>There is some interesting thoughts in here but they're so mixed in with flawed analysis that I don't think I actually learned anything from reading it.

When I first started using foursquare it was neat but I didn't get the appeal. Then I grabbed my first mayorship and for a few months, I checked in religiously. Recently, checking in to places has become a chore. I still do check in when I remember to, but it's not a priority any more.

Checking-in is tedious. Most of the benefits of location-based services are happening through better uses of wireless communication. Excluding GPS, Shopkick uses high frequency audio signatures and ZuluTime just patented some new wifi based stuff (<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/11/zulutime-issued-patent-for-location-aware-wireless-networks/" rel="nofollow">http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/11/zulutime-issued-patent-for-...</a>).

I was quite enthusiastic about check-ins when the good old Plazes service was launched back in 2004. One of the great things about that service was that originally check-ins were based on the WiFi access point you were connected to. This made them effectively automatic.<p>Unfortunately they had a very problematic rewrite from PHP to Rails that lost them quite a bit of their user base, and later Nokia bought the company.<p>Here are some notes from the one and only PlazeCamp they held just before the acquisition:<p><a href="http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/plazecamp/" rel="nofollow">http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/plazecamp/</a> <a href="http://fourstarters.com/2008/01/17/plazecamp-wrapup/" rel="nofollow">http://fourstarters.com/2008/01/17/plazecamp-wrapup/</a><p>The key points with Plazes were: automatic check-ins (it only asked you for information when nobody had connected to that network before), nice statistics (how much you travel per day, who spends time in the same place as you), and also some fun stuff like racing to see who registers most new plazes.

The author gives four reasons for why people check in. He didn't mention the reason I would like to use a checking-in service (I'm not sure if there is a popular one like this yet). I'd like to check in at a bar or a club (I often go alone) and have the service match me with another checked-in person (or people) to hang out with. Instead of using the service to hang out with people I already know, I'd like a service to help me meet new people.<p>Seems like a check-in service could be a nice way to lower the barrier of introducing oneself to a stranger. It's so easy to talk to strangers online, it would be nice to bring that to the meat world.

OK, so please bear with me for a second. What the heck are these check-ins about? foursquare? Huh, I can't make any sense of their horrid front page, what is this about? Where is the explanation (no, not a video, thank you I <i>can read</i>)? Allow me to play the grumpy ol' man here, but this look like another useless toy for teens. And yes, I include facebook and twitter in this category, too.

I also thought Foursquare was a fad. Who cares if you checked in there? Who cares if you're the mayor?<p>I actually have one LBS idea that for me would be really useful, I'd love to have it, and thinking about building it. However I'm slammed with other stuff right now and I'm loathe to switch to Yet Another Shiny Thing rather than build up an existing project further.<p>(Credentials: I wrote the original Postabon/Signpost iPhone app (a deals LBS startup now backed by Google Ventures), and the iPhone app for a different and more recent AR/ecommerce LBS startup that's currently in stealth.)

I agree with the article's predictions with respect to foursquare, but I'm not sure about Facebook, there's still tremendous potential there. Facebook appears to have released Places without putting much thought into it beyond allowing people to simply check in wherever they are and share it with their friends. But I wouldn't be surprised if they were working on incorporating deals with local businesses, etc on a much larger scale, some time soon, either on their own or in conjunction with Groupon or Living Social.

- Look at compete.com traffic estimates<p>- Extrapolate<p>- Make assumptions based on extrapolation<p>- Write sensationalist headline

Missed one reason to check in: to promote the location (being a fan). That alone probably isn't enough to sustain a checkin service, though.

The article made me wonder: are any of these accurate enough to be used for "where did I park"? I would love it if my smart phone had a way to eliminate "standing around in a parking lot looking bemused" from my day. I would love it so much that I would permit it to have a "social" component.

And I thought this was about some new source control system that didn't need checkins.

Yes, yes, sure, in the greater sense of things everything is dead or dying. However, I think it's a bit silly to write off a phenomenon, market, or product while it's still in the explosive growth stage. I personally don't like foursquare but it seems to be going even strong as ever, which is all the more impressive after having weathered some rather strong competition (such as facebook).

The check-in is way too egalitarian in order to transfer any perceived social wealth through using the service.<p>What value can it have when I spend $300 on tickets to an event and some schmuck in the nosebleed seats who spent $30 can check-in with the same social weight? He's not in my class and I don't want him to be associated with me, never mind competing with me in a game.<p>It's all fun and games until the normals start playing.

Lacking context. What's a "check-in"?

correction: foursquare is up to 7 million users, I spoke to dennis a week or two ago. pretty impressive by comparison, I think Facebook had 6 million at their year 2 mark.