Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the Foursquare category.
foursquare secures your check-ins
Following the lead of most major social networking sites, foursquare is now using https across all its websites. In layman’s terms, as they put it on a Twitter post, “For non-nerds: this means foursquare is even more secure.”
Recently Facebook and Twitter also have announced using https, which encrypts your information so that people cannot access it, even in insecure locations like wifi hotspots. We hope this will encourage more activity on foursquare, which is the most fun, especially with its recent iPhone and iPad app overhaul. Points, badges, deals. We can’t get enough.
#FAIL! Top 5 Social Media Blunders of 2010
It’s December, which for many of us means the holidays, excessive drinking and eating, Ugly Christmas Sweater parties and reflection. If you’re writing for a blog or publication, it means pumping out a barrage of lists summing up the year. So, thank you Tumblr. Your utter failure for more than a day inspired this list we’ve compiled of the Top 5 Social Media Blunders of 2010.
Google Buzz
Part email, part Facebook, part Twitter, part Friendfeed, part Foursquare, fully lame. Google launched this social network on Feb. 9 and by Feb. 16 it was slapped with a major lawsuit. Google Buzz was integrated into Gmail, irritating many users, who were automatically signed up, revealing private information without permission. After many privacy violations, a class action lawsuit, Google Buzz has recently settled for $8.5 million. Buzz is still around, but has yet to make any sort of splash.
Twitter Hack
September 2010, hackers exploited a security flaw on the popular micro-blogging site, retweeting malicious code, activating pop-ups, and even exposing users to hard-core pornography.
Tumblr
Earlier this month, blogging host site Tumblr crashed for more than 24 hours, leaving millions of users shut out from their accounts, unable to access the nearly 11 million blogs run through Tumblr.
“During planned maintenance that was not intended to interrupt service, an issue arose that took down a critical database cluster. This brought down our entire network while our engineers worked feverishly to restore these databases and bring your blogs back online.”
Facebook Crash
A technical glitch blocked or slowed access to Facebook for several hours in late September, blocking many of the site’s (at the time) 500 million users from the news feed of updates from their friends.
Facebook called it the worst outage they’d had in over four years and blamed a software flaw that caused a cluster of its databases to be overwhelmed. Facebook said it had to shut down the entire site to stop traffic to the databases.
Ping
Apple’s stab at social media. Debuted in September with their iTunes 10, Ping allows you to follow friends, musicians and others and read about what music they “Ping” and “Like.” Failures here are that you can’t follow your Facebook friends and you can only comment on music purchased through the iTunes store, which for me is not an accurate portrait of my music collection. Though it’s taken a while to catch on, it does feel like the early days of Twitter to me, where people are following others, trying to sort out the purpose of this new social network. It’s definitely a great marketing platform for those in the music industry.
It’s not all negativity at BuzzRocket. All of these failures are a result of the tremendous growth and innovation of social media.
“Failure is the tuition you pay for success,” Walter Brunell
I’m a creep.
Facebook Places. How do I put this delicately? You’re kind of creepy, and what’s worse: You make me kind of creepy. And after attending a Social Media Club of Los Angeles meeting where four times the amount of attendees had checked in on Foursquare than Places, I think I’m not alone.
I took Facebook Places and Foursqure for a test drive over the past couple weeks. And while I get all the positive aspects Facebook touted in their press conference/Facebook Places launch, I have to say, so far, I’ve only been mildly impressed. Frankly, I find the application to be somewhat invasive.
I first used Places to check-in to a bustling Starbucks on Melrose. I saw that one other person had checked in, as well. He appeared to be attractive in his picture, which piqued my interest, so I clicked on his profile. I learned a lot about “Mike:” he’s a photographer, likes dogs, Mad Men. Then I looked around the room and actually saw him, became completely embarrassed, left feeling like an inadvertent stalker – dirty. I don’t use Facebook as a way to meet new people. On a purely personal level, I use Facebook to stay in touch with my friends and family, to look at people’s pictures when I’m bored or procrastinating, and to get a more intimate look into the lives of people I’ve just met – NEVER the other way around.
Later that week, I got together with a couple fellow bloggers, Kelly Ryan O’Brien and Champagne and Heels. Since I was in the midst of my Foursquare/Facebook Places “Pepsi Challenge,” I pulled out my phone to check into the café. I checked in to Foursquare, earning myself 7 points (one for a first time check in, the second for this being my second stop of the day). Then I went to check in on Facebook. Since I was meeting with two of my Facebook friends, I asked if I could tag them on my check in. Both declined, saying that they didn’t want people knowing where they were but for separate reasons. “What if I canceled a meeting with someone on I’m friend on Facebook with to be here? Now they know.” Good point. We’re in L.A.; that happens all the time. My other friend said she was just extremely private, but interestingly does have a Foursquare account. However, she is only friends with three people – old friends from NYC – on Foursquare and, as a recent transplant, uses it as a fun way to keep up with her gal pals back east.
There is an anonymity that goes along with Foursquare. My Foursquare friends know nothing about me beyond where I am, or have been, and the city in which I reside. I can choose which check-ins I want to share on Facebook and Twitter. Plus, it’s somewhat of a game. There are incentives, which make me want to come back for more.
I don’t see too many people checking into places on Facebook thus far, via Places, or Foursquare for that matter. I’m interested to see how this all pans out. On the business side of things, I favor Foursquare. When people check-in, they check into locations I manage, where I can give users deals, tips, etc. Places does not allow people to check into our fan pages, which is irritating, but that is another blog for another time. Stay tuned.
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