Foursquare: Competitive Geolocation Social Networking iPhone App

How many buzzwords will fit in one headline?!? Foursquare, a new social networking app for the iPhone, certainly provides many of them. As well as being geographically aware it adds a new twist: competition.

Foursquare comes from ex-Googler Dennis Crowley who also created the now defunct Dodgeball. He describes Foursquare as being “50% friend-finder, 30% social cityguide, 20% nightlife game”. Basically the app allows you to “check in” with your location and activity as well as view that of your friends.

So far so normal. What’s different about about Foursquare is that you can achieve “badges” for checking on from certain places and doing interesting things. In true gaming tradition gaining certain badges unlocks others and players can compare their achievements. Of course you could cheat and lie, but what would be the point in that?

Another neat feature is the ability to create and share lists of your top 12 places and things to do, described as “an urban mix tape” of “the 12 coolest things you can think of”.

Foursquare looks like being a lot of fun if you’re in one of the cities covered (12 initially). That plus the competitive element may well make it a winner.