The location based social networking space (LBSN) fascinates me. And
with the arrival of Facebook Places the space is going to heat up
fast.
But when I first set out to discover the ideal LSBN for my lifestyle
it was a difficult process. There were a few comparison guides
between Foursquare and Gowalla but nothing that covered all of the
major players in the space. Therefore the process (at least for me)
took several weeks and several experiments with each of the Tier 1
LBSN’s.
Well instead of making you suffer through the same process, I decided
to make an infographic decision guide matrix for you in order to help
you decide which LBSN to use.
Location Based Services (LBS)
Dragon_I, JuliusTrujillo, tylerhilker, Régis Gaidot, and 64 other people added this photo to their favorites.
jstoppelman
View 6 more comments
ljharb 34 months ago | reply
I work at Brightkite - how is the API limited? If it's limited, I'll be happy to un-limit it.
mirjoran 34 months ago | reply
Isn't Google Latitude worth adding to the picture? Except that: awesome graphic, thx a lot for sharing!
Mark Fidelman 34 months ago | reply
If you can (my developers tell me it can't be done) then I'll change the infographic. Thanks for your comments.
Mark Fidelman 34 months ago | reply
ljharb 34 months ago | reply
seekomega - While respecting privacy, ie, only showing you public checkins - sure. api.brightkite.com/objects.html details how you can, for example, call brightkite.com/objects.json?place_id= 356a192b7913b04c54574d18c28d46e6395428ab&filter=checkins,notes,photos and get all of the public objects at that place.
Obviously as the client, you'd have to page through the data using the `limit` and `offset` parameters, and then do your own view analysis and manipulation - but all of the public data is available in this fashion.
Brightkite doesn't have reviews, but you can use `tips=1` to grab only tips, which might serve a similar function.
As for rewards, that would be badges. Our badges API isn't publicly documented yet, and displaying the data tying it to places is still in development (our badges are quite new).
Mark Fidelman 34 months ago | reply
Asiace 34 months ago | reply
Great work!
tattoo design school
Manu Marchal 34 months ago | reply
Seekomega, excellent infographics. Thanks for compiling it.
In addition to Latitude, you might also consider Qype.com, the European equivalent of Yelp and clear leader in Europe in this space in terms of usage and coverage.
(disclaimer: I don't work with Qype but they are using our LikeCube.com personalized recommendation engine for locations)
Mark Fidelman 34 months ago | reply
Luca Baldini 34 months ago | reply
By the way, great job!!!
Mark Fidelman 33 months ago | reply
I just updated the infographic to show Foursquare's Palm support and removed the "limited" from BrightKite's API (although it still has limitations).
homeward_angel04 33 months ago | reply
BrightKite is moving away from location support, though. It's all about Group Text now. Read their latest blog entry.
I'd also like to point out that BrightKite is 90% spammers as evidenced by their public "Everybody" posts page. I'm sure that 2.2 million number is inaccurate when you look at the high spam post count BrightKite has.
playgroundmaker 32 months ago | reply
Great! nice work. It would be great to add svngr and aki aki here.
playgroundmaker 32 months ago | reply
..and www.playground-maker.com, although we are still in beta. Create your real world games in a few clicks.
playgroundmaker 32 months ago | reply
Here is:
SCVNGR (www.scvngr.com) undisclosed number of users, Game mechanics:earn points and unblock badges&real-world rewards, API:Yes,Dashboards: YES, Platforms MAC OSX and Android, User benefit:: create and do challenges, CEO: Seth Priebatsch, in ten words or less: play and discover cool places, gaming engine+social platform.
Invisibleinkdigital.com 32 months ago | reply
Great Job Mark, I really like the infographic. I had posted a similar topic on my blog post. You're infographic was so relevant I'd thought I'd add a second posting citing your work: invisibleinkdigital.com/digital-strategy-2/facebook-place...
realmofmirage 31 months ago | reply
There's a new one that just popped up in the itunes store this week under the radar called Flok.to. It's not as creepy as the other ones and lets you tag places based on their vibe and clientele.
h-e-d 31 months ago | reply
THANK YOU, this is exactly what I've been looking for!!
Helibounce 27 months ago | reply
Hi; really good informatrix! Nice one!
You could also add whrrl as a peer.
mattisherwood 26 months ago | reply
There usually emerges a 3rd party app that enables several of these to be linked together. Is there any such website/program/app for LBSNs, also linking it with Google map's recommendation/rating system? If not, why not? I would love to make one, but haven't the technical skills.