The Location War: Mid-Battle Report
So, as promised a few weeks ago on Twitter, I decided to give a few services a try, and weed out the ones that I felt like weren’t serving my purpose well. After almost a month of testing, I’ve finally narrowed it down to the two top contenders: Foursquare and Gowalla.
IF all things continue as they are, however, Foursquare is likely to be my contender of choice.
Why? Because I can actually use it everywhere.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Gowalla. I think it has a nicer interface, its “trips” section lets you get out and explore major cities, and the concept of items intrigues me (it could allow for a lottery type system to reward people who visit your store and receive your item, for example). But, for the life of me, I can’t get the freakin’ GPS to work all the time.
Actually, I can’t get it to work nearly half the time.
Foursquare, without fail, lets me check in to every single place I go to. Gowalla’s GPS, while somewhat good, still lacks because it’s very off-center. A Gowalla check-in could get me anywhere from 250 – 500 meters off location.
So, for now, Foursquare has my attention. If Gowalla can get its GPS onpoint, then it has a real chance, but until then, if I can’t use it… well, I won’t.
NOTE: I didn’t make this decision because it’s foursquare day, but it is very fitting. Happy Foursquare Day!