Even though I “know” people that work at Gowalla and their sense of design is practically unparalleled in the check-in service space – Foursquare simply works better and that is why I use Foursquare instead of Gowalla.

“I’ll be honest, it’s been a while since I’ve used Gowalla (a location-based checkin service you use on your phone). I’ve found that in most of the cities I visit Foursquare has more users, more tips, is faster, easier to check in, etc.” – Robert Scoble

This has been my experience as well. Check-in services need to be very, very fast and valuable in order for the mass market to use them. Typically check-in services aren’t social streams (that you check many times per day) they are utility apps to help you track locations that you visit, the current location of your friends, and – most of all – information about where you are from other people that have been there. When this entire process isn’t very easy and very fast it becomes a hassle to use the services and so I quickly give up on using them.

Foursquare, while far from perfect, is simply lightyears faster than Gowalla currently is. Checking into a location is quick and easy. For the most part, everywhere that I’d like to check-in is already in Foursquare. On Gowalla I had to add nearly every location I visited. This task is tedious on Gowalla. Here is one gripe, as an example: When you search for a location using Gowalla’s iPhone application and it isn’t in their database (which happened for 85% of my check-ins even in places like Atlantic City, NJ) – you can’t tap an “Add location” button. You have to back out of the location search screen and go back into another screen to find the “Add location” button. This became so annoying that I downloaded the Foursquare application and haven’t looked back since.

I have had high hopes for check-in services ever since my days using Brightkite (man I miss those days). Foursquare has legs (and $50M in the bank). I hope these services continue to improve but they’ll need to innovate very, very quick in order for the mass market to adopt them longterm.

Side note: Remember Brightkite? Oh what could have been.

/via Eric Brophy.

The good bits are in woven into the fabric of his piece. Essentially Kyle hopes that geocoding continues to improve and, most importantly, becomes much easier to use. I’ve already said that 2010 is the year of location. Location based services are going to explode this year and any content-publishing service that does not somehow include location in 2010 will probably be left to wallow in the dead pool come next year.

That much time, attention, and resources being thrown at a problem will hopefully mean real progress. We’re going to see a lot of change for good and bad over the next 12 months in this area but at the end of it all, as Kyle mentions, it has to get easier and more accurate.

Kyle, a longtime user of Brightkite, also mentioned that he agreed with my What Brightkite Could Be. What Brightkite Should Be. post. Some of which is relavent in this context if you haven’t read it.

Until somewhat recently, however, only Brightkite offered another layer ontop of these features that really separated it from Twitter without question. Geolocation.

Brightkite users can “check in” to just about anywhere like restaurants, gas stations, their own homes or just about any real world address. It asks two questions to Twitter’s one: Where are you and what are you doing there?

Twitter is working very hard at bringing geolocation to its own service. It has been rolling out, only through its API at the moment, the ability to geocode each tweet with a specific latitude and longitude. Unlike Brightkite’s check-in based model Twitter’s model isn’t tied down to any address and doesn’t add the extra friction of having to check-in at a place before you’re able to post at it.

There are benefits to both models. For Brightkite some of the benefits include the ability to use SMS commands to find the location you’re currently at, check in, and then post to. This removes the requirement for a GPS-enabled device in order to add metadata to your posts. Also, “Places” having names is very, very important for people figuring out exactly where you are and where something was posted. Being able to view posts on Brightkite from specific locations (rather than specific coordinates) is much more human and fun. I won’t even mention how marketable Places are in contrast to coordinates.

For Twitter some of the benefits include a much more accurate dataset. Each tweet is geocoded individually. Move a foot in any direction and the metadata for your next tweet will reflect that. Again, little or no friction. That lack of friction has always been Twitter’s modus operandi and if they can pull it off with geolocation it will presumably bring more geocoded data to the Web than any other service to date.

Brightkite’s main differentiators, however few there have been, are about to all go away. Save, perhaps, for one. Places. I believe that Twitter’s forthcoming success in this area should be Brightkite’s opportunity to capitalize on what its already learned. There is value a lot of value in Places.

If Brightkite could somehow become the best Twitter client for checking in to, searching for, and viewing the posts at specific Places (even simply addresses) I believe Brightkite could see a huge ramp up in growth and value. Any Twitter account should work at Brightkite, period. Any geocoded tweet that falls within a specific area range around one of Brightkite’s already found Places should be attributed to that Place. Brightkite should no longer consider keeping its own community but rather expand itself into Twitter’s community.

Using Brightkite’s Places dataset, which it has been building and refining for a long time already, it could become the very best way to interact with the new geolocation-enabled Twitter.

That is if they want it to be. Or, they could just keep chasing teenaged girls.

In a nut, I guess I’m just upset with the lack of updates. It started right before SXSW this year. Updates to the service that made any real dent in the ever growing, pie-in-the-sky wish list that I had for the service were all but nonexistent.

If you remember I jotted down what I wanted from Brightkite. Rather than put my biggest wishes out there I shared what I thought they were pretty reasonable things to wish for. Favorites? Preferences for Flickr? Fixing Childs, PA on Brightkite? Hashtag support? And a few others. It has been 5 months since I wrote that post. How many of those updates have come out? None. I don’t expect my wishes to their roadmap but I did get a direct response from several Brightkite team members after writing that post and they said they were working on those things. So I suppose my expectations were a bit high.

A few days ago I asked on Brightkite if anything was new? Chris Tingom, who uses Brightkite every day, succinctly responded with “Nothing new”.

Brightkite was somewhat recently acquired and while I’m sure this has something to do with the amount of work they’ve been able to get done on the service there, I sure hope it doesn’t mean that Brightkite is simply going to go away or be changed into something altogether different. We saw this type of slow down with Pownce right before it was acquired by Six Apart and immediately disbanded. As I’ve said before, Brightkite had a lot more potential than Twitter until Twitter hit the mainstream. I still think that Brightkite has a lot to offer – they just need to address the needs of their ever growing community.

Update: Brady Becker, Founder of Brightkite, has responded to this over on my “is anything new” question on Brightkite with: “@cdevroe new stuff is coming soon, we promise! Your wish list has not been forgotten. (In fact, in the pending release many of your items have been addressed)”.

I’m really happy that I got a response (and such a quick one at that). Mood has shifted back towards optimistic.

“There are things about the site that had me hooked for quite a while. But, I am starting to notice that it gets annoying to update my status on Brightkite and then go and check Twitter to see what everyone else is up to.” … “Don’t get me wrong, I think Brightkite is a stellar network and they have a number of features that I really like. It is nice to go back through my history of updates to see where I have sent updates from and where my travels have led me for that week, I am also a fan of being able to comment on posts. But, there are also things that I am still waiting for – a desktop application, more search options, timestamps in my timezone, and less downtime.”

I experienced very little downtime on Brightkite though I didn’t take full advantage of the SMS features, which is where a lot of downtime happens on these services.

By way of update, I’m keeping my current location up-to-date on Brightkite. It appears on the sidebar of my blog and I like keeping track of the places I’ve been. I still don’t know how long this break I am taking will last.

I have another reason though. I’m getting tired of typing everything into Brightkite on my iPhone only to open TwitterFon to check Twitter. I’ve been doing it for a long time now.

So, a break. I’ll be using Twitter exclusively (and here in my blog).

Oh, and I’m serious about most of these. Darn serious. Seriousness level = 10.

Favorites. It is time. Dare I say, past due? I can not even begin to count the number of times I’ve seen a post on Brightkite that I’ve wanted to save for later, acknowledge its greatness, or simply file away into a list of great Brightkite objects. Anything and everything should be favoritable. I know one of the new terms on the Webz is “likes” – and you can use that if you’d like too.

Flickr preferences like Twitter preferences. The granularity of the Twitter preferences is one of the reasons I was able to begin using Brightkite painlessly. In The way Brightkite fits I wrote:

“Brightkite will update Twitter with any of your activity on Brightkite, but again, there are layers upon layers of options.  Remember I said that you don’t have to switch away from Twitter if you use Brightkite the way I do?  Here is how I have Brightkite set up to notify Twitter.”

“Layers upon layers of options” is not an understatement. You get to choose precisely which actions on Brightkite will notify Twitter, the way your Twitter messages are crafted, and more. Somehow, I need these types of options for sharing photos on Flickr through Brightkite.

I don’t mind if every single photo I post on Brightkite goes to Flickr. For me, it is more a matter of the metadata saved with the photo on Flickr that is important. I choose my titles carefully on Flickr. If Brightkite has its way it simply saves the current location (no matter how messy) as the title. Sometimes this works, othertimes it doesn’t.

What can I say? I’m picky. But Brightkite, usually, allows me to be my picky-self. So, you’ve spoiled me. Your fault Brightkite. You’ve created this animal.

Messages on the Web site like messages on the iPhone. The way that direct messages work on the iPhone is, in my opinion, a lot nicer than the way they are styled on the Web site.

Fix Childs, PA. This really isn’t a “wish list” type of request – because something is obviously fubar for my hometown of Childs, Pennsylvania on Brightkite. Posts, check-ins, photos, etc. are showing up from all over the world. No idea how this happened but it started a while ago.

Odd request: Move these two check-ins and one post. So now we’re getting really nitty – but my friends and I went to Goal Line Sports Bars (which I’ve now created a location on Brightkite for). I’d like the check-ins and posts found here (by myself and CamouflageNoise) to be moved to this location.  I suppose, at the end of the day, I’m asking to be able to move posts and/or check-ins myself via the Web site. So if this situations arises again, I can do it myself.

Hashtag support. If someone uses a #hashtag make it clickable to a post search for that hashtag.

Automatic wall creation. Walls are awesome. No doubt about it. However, if someone does a search – say for No Reservations – I think that it’d be nice to click 1 button and have it create a wall for you with the results of that search. (This is sort of related to the #hashtag support, because for me if I’m following an event, it would be nice to be able to go from a friend’s post to having a wall created for that event with two clicks).

A desktop application. Right now I’m using Fluid and the iPhone web application for Brightkite. But the iPhone web application is, in a matter of speaking, not a good solution to this problem.  Perhaps there is a Brightkite desktop application that I am not aware of that rivals the likes of Twitterrific or TweetDeck but I do not know about it.

Forward /username URLs.  Ooops!

Viddler video. We’ll talk.

I have said it before, I like Brightkite better than Twitter. But, is the above too much to ask? Thanks Brightkite.

And I thought the llama suggestion was going to be tough to write?  What the heck does this suggestion actually mean?  It isn’t like I was able to ask who suggested it, because it was suggested anonymously.  What’s worse is that it was voted for 3 times!

I’ll do my best. I’m going to separate this suggestion into two posts. This first one is called “Web applications that I use on my iPhone”. The second will be called “Web applications and sites I use to stay in the loop”. How is that? Good? Good.

I have over 4Gb free on my 8Gb iPhone 2G. So I don’t install a lot of applications, store a lot of music or photos on my phone. Surely I must use a large number of Web applications or sites to get things done on my iPhone? Well, not really.

I have tried a lot of different Web applications on my iPhone.  I always like to see what sticks.  But for me, these are my most frequented URLs on the go.

Brightkite – As I’ve written about so many times in the past, Brightkite is quickly becoming my favorite social network to update while I’m mobile.  It automatically updates Twitter for me, which was what I used to update, so it is a two-fer.  The granular preferences and notification features are gold.

Hahlo – Since there are still a number of people that I follow on Twitter that have yet to make the jump to Brightkite, though I believe they will at some point in the future, I still have to “check” Twitter from time to time.  And, to be honest, that is where most of the conversation is anyway.  When I asked for help via Brightkite, and it updates Twitter, the number of answers I get via Twitter is much higher than on Brightkite.

This isn’t to say that Hahlo isn’t probably the best iPhone Web application I’ve ever used.  It is certainly the best Twitter Web application built for the iPhone. In fact, from the remarks I’ve read and discussed with others, it still beats the native applications without beating a sweat.

Flickr mobile – A site most definitely not built for the iPhone experience, but it works, and I don’t know any alternative.  I’ve tried Exposure and, while I admire the skill of Frasier Spiers, I do not think Exposure is the right approach to a native iPhone Flickr application.  For quick updates, m.flickr.com works for now.

Google Reader – Every now and then I will read a few posts on the Google Reader iPhone interface.  I don’t do this very often, but it is on my home screen and so it is getting a mention here.

Wait, that’s it?  As far as Web applications is concerned, that is it.  That is all I use frequently.

 

What web applications do you use on your iPhone?

I’m very pleased to see this addition to Brightkite so early-on in their development roadmap.  Search is a challenge for any content company and I think that this first version of their search tool to find posts and people is good enough to appease the masses and have fun playing.

Oh, and the fact that they show a sample search for “sushi” makes it double-plus good.

At least once per day I find myself browsing the first few pages of the Universal tab in “What’s happening” on Brightkite. I find it to be a great way to see what others are doing, what photos their posting, where people are traveling and living, and just a generally good way to waste a few minutes of time.  Like Twitter‘s public timeline this Universal tab allows people to get a glimpse of what others on Brightkite are doing even if they aren’t friends with them.

Adding search to this itch that I scratch each day is going to make me want to use it even more.  I search Twitter all-the-time for things I’m currently experiencing or wondering about.  Now I’ll probably search Brightkite. Some searches I’ve done recently on Twitter, but am now poking around on Brightkite for are cast iron, Viddler (of course), MNF (or Monday Night Football), and making wine.

My list for things I’d like to see on Brightkite is long and varied but I’m happy I can now remove search from this list and look forward to the Brightkite team knocking a few other items off the list in the future.

The above photo was posted to Flickr from my iPhone a few minutes ago.  I wanted to show off, in all its glory, the new desktop picture I’m using on both my Macbook and external monitor courtesy of Mark Bixby.

But this brings up something that I’m completely torn over.  Where should I post my mobile photos?  I have a mobile photos category here on my blog, a Brightkite account that makes it dead-simple to post photos and remember where they were taken an in context, and a Flickr account.

It seems like every time I snap a photo with my iPhone I have a different idea of where I think it should go.  I like having everything I submit to the Web here on my site.  I think photos of what I’m currently eating at a restaurant is best kept on Brightkite for a lot of reasons, and perhaps an artsy mobile photo like this one would be best submitted to Flickr.  Is that the answer?  Should I diversify where I submit my mobile photos?

And better yet, why do I care so much? Should I care?  Does anyone else care?

UGH!

Brightkite, in their infinite generosity, sent me a few stickers that I could give away here on my site.  When I got them in the mail yesterday I immediately began to think of a fun way to give them away, and I think I’ve come up with an easy and fun way.

Photo credit: Chris Tingom

And I think I can find some Viddler tshirts laying around to give away with the stickers.  These people seem to like them, so maybe you will too!

How to “win” a Brightkite sticker and a Viddler tshirt!

Let’s keep this simple, shall we?

1. Create a Viddler account.
2. Friend me on Viddler!
3. Leave a video comment on this post stating about why you’d like a sticker and a tshirt ((Bonus points if you show where you’d put the sticker. Keep it clean.)).

Pretty simple.  If you have a Brightkite account already, friend me up there as well, but if you don’t your sticker will also come with an invite.

There will be 8 winners!  I will select the winners based on the video.  If you don’t have a video camera attached to your computer, you can upload a video to Viddler first and then select it using the Viddler WordPress plugin (just click the link by the comment box and you should be able to figure out the rest).

You can put in entries until tomorrow at noon.

Update: Rob has some Viddler stickers so we’re going to add those to the mix as well!

A note to Brightkite admins: If you have any invites you can drop into my bucket, please do and I will personally invite anyone that leaves a comment on this post.

My 404 page consists of a simple message asking you to contact me to let me know that something went wrong.  There are a lot of services that do much more than simply display a typical “Page Not Found” message, and today we’re going to look at Brightkite‘s “smart” “profile not found” pages.

Brightkite knows how their user’s are using the system.  An example of this was brought to my attention by my coworker Kyle Slattery.  He told me about Brightkite’s ability to detect when a user does not exist on Brightkite, but may exist on Twitter.

Brightkite and Twitter share the same prefix for username detection, the @ symbol ((Other services, like Pownce, use the ! exclamation point.)).  Since Brightkite knows that some people use their system as a geo-enabled Twitter client, like I explained the other day, sometimes you’ll find people “talking” to or about people that do not yet have a Brightkite account. Kyle gave me the example of the username @mikemangino.  That username does not exist on Brightkite but it does on Twitter.

Here is what the profile page looks like on Brightkite for this user.

Rather than show their typical 404 error page, Brightkite asks if you are looking for the same username on Twitter, and even gives you the option to invite that person over to Brightkite.  Kyle thought this was “brilliant”, and I do too.  Kyle was wrong about one thing though; Brightkite’s “profile not found” page isn’t as smart as he might have thought.  Here is what Kyle said:

“Brilliant, if you go to a user on BrightKite that exists on Twitter, but not on BK, there’s a link to invite them, not a 404.”

I don’t think Kyle actually meant to say that Brightkite detects the user on Twitter, because they definitely do not.  But I just wanted to be sure it was clearly stated.

Brightkite’s “profile not found” page is smart enough to know that people are probably on that page because they clicked an @username to a Twitter account and not a Brightkite account. And that is indeed brilliant.  It is a great example of how Brightkite is continuously showing themselves to be “in touch” with how people use their system which makes Brightkite a joy to use.

Specific, non-specific, and everything in between

One of the beauties of Brightkite is the layers of options you have with just about everything you do on the service.  When I “check in” at any given location, I can be as specific about where I am as I want to be.  For example, when I check in at home I simply check into the city in which I live.  I do not check into my exact address.  When I’m at a cafe, at work, or another public location I generally check in with as specific location details as I have available to me at the time.

My ‘Visited Places’ on Brightkite.

Also of note is that if you’re scared to give out your exact address don’t be naive to the fact that if someone really wants to find out where you live, they can – whether you use any of these location based social services or not.

Perhaps you’ll only want to check into Brightkite when your geography changes dramatically.  Maybe going to the grocery store down the road doesn’t warrant you switching your location before you share 140 characters with the world the way you do now.  Perhaps if you went on vacation to an island in the Bahamas, you’d like to check in so that your messages are properly stored based on your current location.

I’m a little more anal than that.  I want my locations to be stored as granularly as possible. Not for everyone else, but for the possibilities that arise because of it. Not only am I able to keep track of where/when/how and what for myself, but you never know when you might meet up with a fellow Brightkite user at a given location.

I’ve been poking around my history on Brightkite and I see that I’ve crossed paths a few times ((Sometimes within only a few miles or even at the same location but only a day or so apart.)) with other Brightkite users.  My friend and follow Viddler team member Brandice (who talked me into really kicking the tires at Brightkite) recently met up with a Brightkite user at her local Panera Bread. I’m hoping, like it has happened on Twitter so many times, that Brightkite makes this even easier for me to experience as well.

Using Brightkite as a Twitter client

Brightkite will update Twitter with any of your activity on Brightkite, but again, there are layers upon layers of options.  Remember I said that you don’t have to switch away from Twitter if you use Brightkite the way I do?  Here is how I have Brightkite set up to notify Twitter.

One of the most annoying things, I thought, about the way that Brightkite updated Twitter was all of the bkite.com/whatever URLs.  Every time you saw a message from a Brightkite user on Twitter you saw this link and I found it irritating.  It turns out that the Brightkite team has already thought of this.  Not only can you specify which activities on Brightkite update your Twitter status (including check ins, note, and photo posts), but you can also specify the information that Brightkite posts to Twitter.  I have customized the output of my notifications to Twitter so that my notes do not contain a link back to Brightkite.  This means that if I use Brightkite to post a note and it updates Twitter, those that follow me on Twitter are none-the-wiser.  However, when I post a photo to Brightkite there is a link from Twitter so that you can see that photo.  There is also a link when I check in at a location, though I’m considering removing this update notification from my list because some on Twitter may find it annoying ((Which I can totally understand.)).

So instead of posting to Twitter I post to Brightkite which, in turn, posts to Twitter for me.  No extra work on my part.  Some of the people I follow use services like Ping.fm to post to every single social network at once.  I’ve not gotten that deep yet but it is certainly an option.

Conclusion

Brightkite is a very promising service being developed by a team that obviously pays close attention to detail.  I like that.  I feel that the teams at both Brightkite and FriendFeed pay far more attention to detail than the team at Twitter, but then again all three services have very different challenges and goals.  When I see a service being as well crafted as Brightkite is, I’m going to stick around and see if I can make it fit.

I have a few invites to Brightkite.  So if you want one drop a comment and use an email address that I can send the invite too.