foursquare

Twitter adds option to tweet location by name

The new Twitter Places feature lets people tweet their specific location by name--whether it's the neighborhood tavern or the World Cup stadium in South Africa.

Unveiled Monday and launching in 65 countries over the next week, Twitter Places is the company's latest enhancement to its location-based tweeting service. People can now tag tweets with a specific location already stored in Twitter's database, add a new place, and see who else is tweeting from a specific area.

Tweeting location isn't a new concept for Twitter. The company's geotagging feature, which launched last year, lets people include … Read more

Frequent Foursquare miles? Topguest checks in

A start-up called Topguest is aiming to take the wild assortment of location-based "check-in" services out there and turn them into something a little more familiar: hotel and travel reward points. The company, which launched Thursday amid the craziness of Internet Week New York, is currently in a "preview" version that consists of a partnership with the trendy Andre Balazs-helmed Standard Hotels chain.

Here's how it works. Topguest users sign up and then connect any number of location-based social media services--Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, Brightkite, Yelp, and Google Latitude for now. Most of it is handled … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1242: Mucho Bogo, AT&T (podcast)

You're going to have to listen to the show to understand the evolution of our favorite new phrase, "mucho bogo." Speaking of evolution, the HTC EVO 4G is officially available, just in time to be stomped into dust by the forthcoming iPhone. Maybe. Also, Google's going to hand over its intercepted WiFi data, to make a bad problem worse, and we're giving a big (BIG) no to the Kno.

China's Foursquare block tied to Tiananmen Square

Access to Foursquare's "check-in" app has been blocked in China, the mobile networking service confirmed with CNET on Friday.

Rumors began to circle about the ban early Friday when tweets and blog posts from Chinese Foursquare users indicated that they could not access the service.

Foursquare is still looking into the issue, co-founders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai told CNET. Namely, they aren't sure whether this will be a permanent block or temporary. But it appears to be linked to the 21st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, the 1989 incident in which the Chinese military … Read more

Yahoo buys mobile social network provider Koprol

Though Yahoo may have wanted to buy Foursquare, the company has found another way to hook into the world of location-based social networking.

Yahoo announced Tuesday that it has bought Koprol, a social network for mobile users. Based in Jakarta, Indonesia, Koprol lets people make friends, share photos, and find popular nearby locations all on the go. The news comes a day after Yahoo and Nokia extended their 5-year-old partnership with an eye toward the rising interest in geo-location offerings, pledging to bring Nokia's Navteq mapping service to Yahoo, and Yahoo's e-mail and instant-messaging technology to Nokia's … Read more

Yahoo gets social abroad

Yesterday I wrote about Yahoo's lack of social networking. Today Yahoo announced that it is acquiring a location-based social network called Koprol. It's a start!

Koprol is an Indonesian social network that sounds a lot like FourSquare, only it gives you the option to photograph and review locations that you check in to.

Will Yahoo use this in all of its mobile products moving forward or is this just a strategic acquisition for the Indonesian market? For what it is worth, I think they should add social features to all mobile products moving forward. I'm not … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1230: The accumulation of little indignities (podcast)

The indignities start with problem in the New York studio that keep Molly from being visible on today's show, and then end with the realization that all those browser preferences are basically a trackable fingerprint that's further eroding any illusion of online privacy you might have ever had. Also, Google's getting into the phone business. Again.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video)… Read more

The Internet makes you happy

To counterbalance the stories we regularly see about how the Internet makes us antisocial misanthropists, here is one that shows just the opposite: the Internet brings happiness. Well duh! CNET readers already knew that!

All joking aside, there is something to be said about information and happiness. Ignorance is hardly bliss when ignorance means not having access to research, news, entertainment, and one another. The popular belief seems to be that modern advancements do not make us happy but perhaps that is too technologically deterministic.

In The Wealth of Networks, Yochai Benkler writes that "technological determinism is false.&… Read more

Gadgettes 183: The You're Killing Me Episode (podcast)

Tom Merritt joins us to discuss the many ways that technology is conspiring to kill us all.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 183

Facebook privacy policy: Longer than the constitution

Zuckerberg IMs

The many missteps of Facebook

Things Facebook should say at their internal meeting

Cradle from Quirky: An iPad lap desk with a twist

Get a “Keyboard Upgrade” for your ipad

Desktop donut factory? Sweet!

Ridiculous ‘speech bubble’ helmets cut out noise, dignity… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1223: We'll be watching you (podcast)

Our theme for today's show? Somebody's watching you, and it ain't just the Police. It's also Facebook and Google, and apparently some people think Net neutrality means the government will be watching you, too. Watch for the Net neutrality 101 rant at the end of the show plus a lot of singing of the "I'll be watching you" song. Because Brian Tong is on. We just hope Sting doesn't sue.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1223

Facebook rolling out location … Read more