Local discovery or recommendations engines have come and gone in the past. But now that Google has come to dominate “local search” we can expect to see many sites and publishers repositioning or relaunching as “local discovery” engines. WHERE and ReachLocal’s Bizzy are two recent examples. Google itself has HotPot and the more amorphous “contextual discovery.”
Foursquare is apparently heading in this direction as well. This is what I infer from a comment CEO Dennis Crowley makes in an interview with Om Malik:
I think a lot about [things like] how we can build things that really alert people [to] all the interesting things that are happening within the general radius of them.
In the interview Crowley also lays out Foursquare’s “three big ideas”:
There’s latitude and longitude, and the time and day that you’re standing in right now… ["context"]
The second thing is the role that game mechanics can play in encouraging people to actually go out and do things they wouldn’t do…
I think the third big idea is the way that you can use a combination of location-based services and social media to empower local merchants to connect with customers in different ways . . .
Interestingly Crowley says the following about local merchant CRM (third idea):
It’s fortunate for us that it’s one of the things that’s going to be very easy to monetize.
Very easy? Perhaps he’s talking about national advertisers (though probably not) or taking third party ads from some of the local-mobile ad networks such as xAd, Chitika, CityGrid, WHERE or AT&T Interactive. Otherwise that statement is a little naive.
Coupons and deals will always be popular and a way to drive foot traffic; however game mechanics by themselves will not mainstream the service. Making Foursquare a tool to find out about “cool” and interesting stuff to do either in real time or in the near future (e.g., this weekend) would make it very useful in combination with its other features and help drive further adoption.
Facebook’s Like data is going to be really potent in local, as I’ve said several times before. One can build lists of “most Liked” places as well as lists of Liked places by those within my network. These data are going to prove invaluable to a next-generation of local applications, including once and future “recommendation engines.”
December 28th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
What is interesting about that interview, as well, is Crowley’s statement
“We’re a little bit early.”
Are they so early that they just paved the way for Facebook to take their concept and run? Foursquare will not likely scale anywhere near Facebook’s size AND Facebook is in their game already with Places. He is quick to talk about how limited Facebook is in the interview but he better be ready.
What Zuck wants, Zuck gets.
December 28th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
I think their particular execution had limited appeal. Early might be seen as a euphemism. Google maps for mobile had more than 100 MM downloads. Granted they’re different things but Foursquare’s limited adoption is often incorrectly cited as a proxy for all local content/services.
Yes re FB. Agree . . . and that’s the hazard of doing business on the internet. It’s hard to protect your ideas/innovations from being copied. Google stole and improved upon Overture’s PPC model for example.
December 28th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Greg Sterling, Craig Daitch, Steve Harlow, UBLorg, John Hopkins and others. John Hopkins said: Interesting post on local search trends for 2011, http://www.screenwerk.com/2010/12/28/local-discovery-rising-in-2011/ [...]
December 29th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
I totally agree with your note about it being “very easy” to monetize seeming naive. Unless you’re Groupon, that seems to be the hard part. I do think the potential for more location-based deals is enormous, but first you’ve got to get people out of their house, right?
January 4th, 2011 at 12:13 am
If I were to meet Mr. Crowley at a party, and didn’t now who he was, and he were to share with me Foursquare’s three big ideas, I would have no clue what Foursquare is. And that’s their biggest problem.
January 7th, 2011 at 12:58 am
[...] from a “search” (pull) offering to a “discovery” (push) offering mirrors larger developments happening elsewhere among app developers and publishers. Even Google is trying to further develop recommendations and [...]
February 7th, 2011 at 4:58 pm
Love the first “Big Idea” – there’s this “context” thing. Where I am, what time is it, and, I assume, what I am – like, hungry, thirsty, bored. Got that. Good start. Then we get into “game mechanics”, which I assume has something to do with guys in overalls playing mumbly peg with wrenches. Finally, we get to location-based services and social media empowering local merchants. From this I assume that Foursquare has figured out how to monetize something like the city-wide strikes during the Egyptian uprising: “Check In with 100 friends at Freedom Square and get a free balaclava coupon from The Gap”.
February 21st, 2011 at 6:11 pm
[...] Local Discovery Rising in 2011 from Greg Sterling twitter @gsterling [...]