once upon a life

a life worth living

FourSquare does it right

Hats off to Dennis Crowley , Naveen Selvadurai and team for launching their greatest update so far. Compared to their closest competitor, foursquare is by far - a winner. 

VENUE CHECK IN - foursquare does it right

For foursquare users, the new Explore 2.0 makes checking in on Google HotPot & Yelp irrelevant. The tips are there, and the informations are growing - fast. Finding places are very easy and personalized.
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GAMIFICATION - foursquare does it right. 

Attractive leaderboard to compete with your friends, daily personal points (beat your own score), personal top places & categories, and badges. Done correctly, gamification is amazing mechanics that user love and embrace in a heartbeat. Foursquare is one great example. 
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Meanwhile, there is Gowalla. I've tried to use Gowalla for a while. None of my friends are using it. I try really hard to use it, yet I can't seem to understand their gaming rules. Stamps are everywhere, occasionaly I got items that I can add to Collection (but I have no idea what it really does) and so far I got no special rewards nor tips that caught my attention. So far, Gowalla is pretty much useless. The graphic has always been really nice (their latest update makes it even more), the receipt-printing animation is very slick, the stamps and items are very nicely designed - but in the end I just cant find their value proposition. Try harder guys!