Being a voyeur is not a game anymore

We like the risk of being watched. The thrill of knowing people follow your every move with rapt attention strokes the ego and makes us celebrities in our own little bubble. It started with blogs, went to lifestreaming, now location awareness with push notifications is the big game in town. So why is location based technology the game changer for pushing social media to your doorstep?

Location awareness is an increasing requirement in mobile usage as networks, handsets and content have improved to target this segment. Adding in the ego and gaming factor you now have users competing to hand over their valuable usage analytics and the start-up Foursquare is purportedly valued at $100 million. Foursquare is a proven tool for businesses with many examples ranging from the City of Chicago making city exploration fun, the Wynn Las Vegas’ unique approach to top notch service, to Starbucks’ desire to better understand their customers.

In my opinion a lot can be gathered with how quickly retail has picked up on Foursquare after having seen success with Twitter, the desire to not be left behind is pushing the competition. Since Foursquare has been on the scene for over a year it’s not showing any signs of slowing down. According to CEO and co-founder Dennis Crowley: Twitter didn’t reach the same adoption point until it was close to two years old.

Even with social detractors such as stalkers and the “Please Rob Me” uproar, it’s interesting to look at how quickly the momentum for location aware services is taking off. It pulls at the human nature to compete and be rewarded. This competition has fueled grassroots “swarm” badge meetups and unique thought to driving customers to non-retail oriented businesses. And with the new business tools I foresee the ability to convince your boss about why Foursquare is the new frontier to spend time.

The real determining factor that Foursquare has made it is when you start seeing posts about how people quit using the service because they have moved onto the next big thing. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts the advent of Google Goggles and visual tracking makes combining these technologies as the next candidate to explode. I foresee with the current camera-based technology and location tracking ability, in the next 2 years, we will not give a second thought when our daily life ingrained with this technology as a utility.

About Dave McNamara:

Dave McNamara’s fascination with technology began early on as a child, visiting his father at work as a programmer at NASA. Dave is part of the Interactive team working with developing the agency’s web/mobile initiatives and advising on new media strategies. He is graduating this May with an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University concentrating in Information Systems and Security. His perfect morning consists of sipping on a fresh-roasted cup of espresso and listening to old (and new) records.