With the explosion of Twitter and and Facebook’s status updates, real estate to get your point across is coming at a premium these days. URL shortening sites like TinyURL, bit.ly and tr.im have become immensely popular. The downside to these sites is that spammers have caught on to the game, so if you don’t know the person who has posted a link on Twitter, you’re kind of clicking at your own risk. For those who love a good practical joke at the expense of others, ShadyURL is a great way to have some fun. The service takes an innocent URL like yahoo.com/news and turns it into something suspicious-looking, usually with references to malicious software, porn or how to make a nuclear bomb. The first time I saw it I stared at the link for a good 30 seconds before my friend I was chatting with told me what he had done.
A ShadyURL example
Though it’s been around for a year now, within the past few weeks it seems like the location-based service Foursquare has been enjoying its coming out party. The site has enjoyed considerable press in the past month in a variety of publications and the interactive portion of the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, has seemingly been themed around location-based apps. Foursquare allows users to check in at various venues while out and about, which broadcasts that information to their network of friends on the service as well as Twitter and Facebook if enabled. Users collect points and unlock badges for visiting various locations, and those who are regulars at certain places and visit the most earn “mayorships.”
What’s interesting about services like Foursquare is that while it is a way for consumers to let their friends know where they are and what they’re up to, Foursquare encourages businesses to get in on the action by providing specials to people who unlock various badges or become the mayor of their establishments. It’s a great way for small business owners to create brand loyalty and make their customers feel their business is valued.
