Comments on: Foursquare or Stalkersquare?

By: What’s Up With Facebook Places? | Ramble On Ron

What’s Up With Facebook Places? | Ramble On Ron — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 19:29:33 +0000

[...] blog post entitled “Foursquare or Stalkersquare” got a lot of comments and feedback so I decided to poll my Diamonds Fan Page on this issue to see [...]

By: Do You Mix Messages On Social Networks? | Ramble On Ron

Do You Mix Messages On Social Networks? | Ramble On Ron — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:30:16 +0000

[...] access off and on – I still can’t figure that one out, even after I wrote this post, “Foursquare or Stalkersquare?”. What do you think? Do you use sites like ping.fm to update all of your networks or use them all [...]

By: Ron Samuelson

Ron Samuelson — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:14:31 +0000

I agree David!

By: Ron Samuelson

Ron Samuelson — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:13:57 +0000

Thanks Garth and GREAT VIDEO! Still watching it, but farmville has more users than twitter is mind blowing!

By: David Dannenbaum

David Dannenbaum — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:08:01 +0000

I don’t see these sites as the next Facebook either. Rather, they appear to me to be grabbing a slice of the Facebook model, much like twitter has done with the status update. I agree with other commentors that the marketing opportunty through location-based access to people will be absolutely huge. And mobile will be THE platform. It’s always about becoming untethered. Getting away from the desktop. But this will likely go the way of the Craigslist Killer case. It may take one serious Foursquare crime to get these services and their users to standardize their behavior so the danger is minimized. I’m not predicting this eventuality. Hopefully people are generally smart enough to use discretion in these places.

By: RiverC

RiverC — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:43:29 +0000

A slight correction; I believe the Google service is Google Latitude; Buzz might in fact connect with Latitude but it is a different service.

I think as always two things are important 1. Only connect on services like these with people you trust, 2. Do not report your every activity… only report activities you’re comfortable sharing with your list. I guess a third idea would be to not do anything you would be unwilling to share with the world.

A good video that points to the kind of mentality which may be behind these technologies is here:

http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/DICE-2010-Design-Outside-the-Box-Presentation/

A certain naivete among people about the possibilities here is probably involved. In the end it amounts to ‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?’ I don’t mind my priest knowing my personal errors, privacy is not absolute. But while Facebook might be trustworthy – what if Facebook is bought by someone who is not?

That Google refused to submit to demands to divulge search query data to the Government is either a positive sign or a negative one, depending on how paranoid you are, I guess

By: Ron Samuelson

Ron Samuelson — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:58:02 +0000

Thanks Greg. I’m sure that there is something there. I think the right move may just be to not cross pollinate with your facebook and twitter accounts. And use common sense. People do need to realize that it’s a crazy world out there!

By: Greg Cangialosi

Greg Cangialosi — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:48:11 +0000

I think we are on the horizon of location based marketing. Foursquare is just ripening up the ecosystem. I agree with some of the points for sure – safety first. Maybe keep each medium to its own, etc. Ive been thinking about not cross pollinating my foursquare check-ins with my twitter account, and never populated them to facebook. That said, I am all over this location based stuff…

By: Michael Schechter

Michael Schechter — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:44:40 +0000

Big Brother is absolutely watching, the only upside here is we potentially get to see what he sees (or at least a valuable part of what he sees).

By: Ron Samuelson

Ron Samuelson — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:39:25 +0000

Hi Michael – thanks so much for your comment! That’s a good point that there will be a use for this in shopping. As far as the jewelry industry goes, they won’t catch onto this one for about 10 years. But I’m just pointing out that it is a little creepy. You can be sure that aside from the customer interaction that it may provide, the money that will be made from the creators of these sites will be from the sale and analysis of your behavioral information to advertisers. Big Brother is watching!