See also Social media, Social networking and Web 2.0

Location-based social networking sites (SNSs) are part of a hot new trend in social media that allow you to reveal where you are (i.e. your exact location within your city) and all of the places you have visited by using your mobile or handheld phone. This trend is related to other geo-location trends such as geo-tagging and Twitter (so-called “locative media”). The most popular location-based SNSs are Foursquare, Gowalla and Booyah “MyTown”.

In the case of Foursquare, points are awarded for “checking in” at venues and users can choose to have their Twitter feed and Facebook accounts updated once they check in to a new location. Foursquare recently enabled a push-notification of its updates — which are called “Pings.” Foursquare users earn badges by checking in at locations with certain tags in order to achieve high levels of check-in frequency. When a user checks-in to a venue more than anyone else on separate days and has a profile photo, they are crowned “Mayor” of that venue until someone else earns the title by checking in more times than anyone else.

Gowalla and Booyah “MyTown” employ similar incentives for visiting a number of locations.

Popular location-based SNSs

• Foursquare http://foursquare.com/

• Gowalla http://gowalla.com/

• Booyah “MyTown” http://www.booyah.com/

• Google Latitude http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/latitude/intro.html

Library-related applications

• promotion and marketing

• digital outreach

• gaming

References

• A list of location-based SNSs http://bdnooz.com/lbsn-location-based-social-networking-links/
• Brady D. Social media’s new mantra: location, location, location. Fast-growing network Foursquare is luring potential buyers. Business Week. May 6th, 2010.
• Booyah – http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/05/booyah-hits-2-million-stealing-foursquares-thunder/#ixzz0nBRcCtUj
• U.S. Center for Locative Media – http://www.locative-media.org/
• Michael K. What Can Location Based Social Networking Applications Tell Us About An Individual’s Behavioural Patterns? Institute for Innovation in Business and Social Research Retreat. University of Wollongong. Kangaroo Valley, NSW. Nov. 2009.
• Richmond Shane. SXSW 2010: The changing face of the web. Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/sxsw/7465438/SXSW-2010-The-changing-face-of-the-web.html
• Tuters M, Varnelis K. Beyond Locative Media. Networked Publics blog. http://networkedpublics.org/locative_media/beyond_locative_media