Facebook to Wipe out Foursquare?

Not quite

Pajama Cast #3

Back on March 9th, the New York Times had a piece on facebook unveiling a location based feature integrated with status check ins.  This reinforces the attention that these new location based applicaitons is receiving and the belief that the mainstream is ready to embrace location based services.  The irony?  Google bought out Dodgeball in 2005, an early location based feature which launched in 2003.  Feeling that the project was not receiving the attention it deserved, Dennis Crowley, one of the founders of Dodgdeball, leaves Google and starts Foursquare.  Google then kills Dodgeball early last year, foursquare becomes a player in SXSW in 2009,  and here we are!

It doesn’t take a genius to see that facebook, which has been working on this feature for a while, recognizes that this is a prime opportunity to have a new way to market on behalf of small businesses.  Can you imagine marketing to individuals on their phone while they are checking in at a nearby venue?  Or provide incentives to those loyal patrons, who in return can become ambassadors of a business and tell their friends?

Pajama Cast notes

New York Times article

Foursquare

Gowalla

Notable mentions – Brghtkite.com, and Loopt