For those who like to keep tabs on the whereabouts of their friends and family and be followed in return, Foursquare has opened in Honolulu.

Foursquare has been getting a lot of tech press lately as pundits promote it as the next Twitter. I can see why people might say this, although predictions about the next big thing on the Web miss more than they land.

Foursquare is a social media service that geographically locates your circle of friends. Beyond that, it has a built-in game that rewards you badges whenever you go to a location. Enough visits to your favorite Starbucks and you get to be its mayor. No campaign staff to hire, no groveling for donations.

The service is rather like Brightkite, but the addicting aspect of Foursquare is its appeal to your inner politician to rule and dominate.

You can leave tips and bits of advice for your friends for these locations, such as: "Don't order the lasagna; it sucks" and "The bartender's a cutie." Hey, old but not dead.

Foursquare has a close alignment with Twitter; you can login with your Twitter credentials and tie in your entries with your tweets. Foursquare also released an API this week, according to Mashable's Peter Cashmore, a move that can speed its growth and acceptance.

Mobile apps are available for the iPhone and Android and a Blackberry app is in development.

Try it and let me know your experience. And tell us: which do you like better — Brightkite or Foursquare?

Tags: 2.0, Brightkite, Foursquare, Mashable, social networking, Twitter

This entry was posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 6:40 am and is filed under Technology, Web sites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.