foursquare

For as far back as we've been discussing social networks, there have been question marks around the best ways to monetize users. To date, advertising has been the primary strategy, with virtual goods starting to pull in some serious revenues.

But the challenge with advertising is that users tend to ignore ads that are not highly targeted. Even precisely targeted ads are largely ignored, which is why you see more and more of them taking up screen real estate. This has also led to more sites adopting a "freemium" content model.

And targeting is even more of a challenge when users are mobile, but mobility also introduces a whole new way to interact with and monetize users.

One of the more interesting companies in the location-based services (LBS) space is Foursquare. Surely, you've seen some message in your Twitter stream telling you that your friend is at some location or is the mayor of whatever, or has unlocked a badge.

And while Foursquare has nowhere near the user base of Facebook or Twitter, the users are very valuable as they promote the places they go and things they do simply by mentioning them in their communication stream.

According to The New York Times, Foursquare plans to distribute a new analytics tool and dashboard in the coming weeks that will give business owners access to a range of information and statistics about visitors to their establishments. This means that businesses can more effectively target users with specific offers and ads.

But what it really provides is a way for Foursquare and other location-aware services to make money.

Going back to 2001, I remember talking about location-based services while working at OmniSky, a way-too-early provider of hardware and software that turned handheld devices like the Palm V into mobile devices. We even acquired an Israeli company called NomadIQ to deliver location-based content.

Ten years later we're just starting to see location-based offers roll out in the U.S.--better late than never?

Many of the early international LBS were very basic social networks (primarily dating) and the demand for such services in the U.S. simply wasn't there, partially because of social mores and also partially because mobile devices have evolved fairly dramatically. … Read more

A few weeks ago we took a look at CheckoutCheckins, a free service that helps users understand more about their Foursquare addiction habits. Now there's another companion tool (from a different developer) called Meet Gatsby that can help you meet other Foursquare users with those same interests.

In a nutshell, it has people fill out things they like, such as hobbies or social activities. Then, the next time they check in somewhere, it will connect them to someone else in the vicinity who also signed up for the service and who shares one or more of those interests.

What'… Read more

Pretty soon, you'll be able to learn a bit more about where your Twitter contacts' tweets are coming from.

CNET has learned that select third-party developers were informed earlier this week about some forthcoming modifications to Twitter's "geo API," the set of developer tools that currently allows Twitter messages to be accompanied by the latitude and longitude coordinates of where they were posted. (For example, if you're updating Twitter client Tweetie from your iPhone, you can opt to tag the tweet with your location and it'll be visible to people reading your Twitter feed.)… Read more

If you didn't see Shaun White destroying the competition at the Men's Olympic Halfpipe Finals in Vancouver last night, check out the video and prepare for a face melt, and don't forget to watch our interview with the man himself! And there's even more good news: it's Thursday, which means Natali Del Conte is on today's show! We start off the show with a quick news recap from the Olympic games, then NDC tells us about last night's interview with Justin Timberlake.

The first story of the day is about PleaseRobMe.com, a new Web site that uses geolocation check-ins from Gowalla, Brightkite, or Foursquare to exploit folks broadcasting their unprotected abodes. The vulnerability assumes that you don't have a roommate, and, of course, it doesn't say where your houses actually is, but it certainly highlights the continued lack of privacy surrounding this latest batch of social networks.

The Barbie poll results are in. Over a half million votes were cast, and the public chose her next career: Computer Engineer! The new doll will hit shelves this fall and will feature a binary code patterned shirt, a pink laptop, a teched-out watch, and a Bluetooth headset. We all agree that Barbie isn't the best toy for young girls, but we can still appreciate the cultural relevance, even if everything she owns is blasted in bright pink. Besides, it could be worse: auto-tune Barbie with talk-box accessory, anyone?

Foursquare is fast approaching its first anniversary. The free social service, which lets people share their location with others from their mobile phones, launched at last year's South by Southwest festival. It has since gone on to become a Web 2.0 darling in a way that its predecessor Dodgeball (also from one of Foursquare's co-founders) never did, due mostly to the growth of users with GPS-enabled smartphones.

But short of its badge system, which awards heavy use with virtual trophies, the service has always been lacking a sense of reflection--a way for users to look back on … Read more

On today's show, Amazon gets called out on price-fixing, even though Macmillan wants to charge too much for e-books. AT&T redefines "unlimited," and Microsoft is redefining the bar code, Apple got the fake Flash out of its iPad ads, and big news! Jason had his baby, and Molly's coming back to Buzz Out Loud full time as of next week. Yeah, you read that right. Not a punk. See you Wednesday! -- Molly

Congrats Jason Howell! … Read more

Among the new features is the idea of "checking in" to a local businesses, which will let you alert your Yelp friends that you're there--complete with a push notification. Yelp will also reward repeat visitors by denoting them as "regulars," with the most often visiting party getting a special badge.

Sound familiar? You might have used Foursquare or Gowalla, … Read more

Attention, suburbanites: You, too, can be the mayor of your local Home Depot.

That's because New York-based mobile location-sharing service Foursquare has made a subtle but big improvement. It's no longer restricted to a list of a few dozen cities in North America and Europe, which means that people anywhere in the world can use their mobile phones to "check in" through the service. (Foursquare currently has applications for the iPhone, Palm Pre, and Google Android, as well as a BlackBerry app in development and a mobile Web site.) The new feature is considered to currently … Read more

Earlier this week I wrote a post about how I didn't like that I couldn't alter the Facebook Connect privacy settings for updates from Foursquare, an iPhone app that shares my location through a GPS-enabled city directory. It didn't make sense to me that Facebook Connect information was automatically visible to anyone who had access to posts on my "wall," whereas privacy settings on a third-party app embedded directly on my profile were much more fine-tuned, allowing me to restrict them to specific subsets of friends.

I've been e-mailing back and forth with Facebook, … Read more