U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron recently joined social networking sites LinkedIn and Foursquare in an effort to expand his digital presence and better connect with both citizens and businesses alike. On LinkedIn, Cameron will network with “people and businesses the PM meets regarding U.K. business, enterprise and manufacturing,” according to the official blog post from the PM’s office.

Meanwhile, on Foursquare, the PM will check-in to various venues in order to “illustrate the events the Prime Minister participates in during his day-to-day duties beyond Downing Street.”

Cameron, who has been in the news lately due to his creation of a new “porn filter” for U.K. Internet Service Providers, is already active on social networks including Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and even newcomer Google+. Adding Foursquare and LinkedIn to the list highlights the increasing importance those services have in today’s digital landscape.

That said, the LinkedIn effort is a bit odd since most people use the service for as a place to maintain their online resume and look for job opportunities through their business connections. It’s not typically thought of as a communications platform for politicians. However, it should be interesting to see what happens as a result of the PM’s joining. Will other politicians think to do the same? Or will they stick to more social sites like Facebook and Twitter?

At any rate, seeing a LinkedIn profile for someone of Cameron’s caliber does take a step towards humanizing the man, who, like many other high-caliber politicians, is often thought of as more of an abstract figure than an actual person. It’s refreshing to read his resume that begins simply “I became Prime Minister after the General Election in May 2010,” as if he’s just some other guy talking about what he does for a living. (It’s also pretty fun when you find out that you’re a 3rd degree connection with him!)

The PM’s Foursquare account provides a somewhat voyeuristic look at what a politician does, by tracking who Cameron is meeting with, when and why. Over the past few weeks, before the official announcement was posted, the PM was already checking in to venues including New York, Ontario, the House of Commons and more. It would be more helpful, however, if the PM would consistently check into actual venues, instead of city-sized venues like “Ottawa.” (That’s not how you’re supposed to do it, sir.)

In addition, the Foursquare account provides “tips” to its followers (which appear upon their check-in to particular venues like 10 Downing St.) that provide bits of trivia or history about the venue, such as historical facts, ghost stories and links to related resources on the Web. For example, did you know No. 10 has a resident cat called Larry in charge of pest control? Thanks to Foursquare, I do now. Oh, and in case you’re interested, you can see Flickr photos of Larry hanging around the cabinet here on Flickr, too.

During the Apple keynote announcing the iPhone 4S, there were two mysterious apps announced that would be launched with iOS 5. The first was “Find my Friends“, an app joining a slew of location apps like FourSquare, to keep tabs on where your friends and family are at any given time and vice versa. The second was the Apple “Card” app, which enters the crowded but fruitful physical greeting card market.

I felt like the Apple Card app was very well done, and could have a great shot at making serious revenue for Apple. After a day with “Find my Friends“, I’m not so sure it can find the same success.

First off, the idea of the app is a bit creepy. Unlike foursquare, “Find my Friends” shares your location with whomever you accept a request from, all of the time.

I asked people on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook if they were using the app. I received a handful of responses, and only one from an actual friend that I’d want to share my location with. Here is Jacob Mullins‘ response:

After its announcement, there weren’t any other official mentions from Apple about the app. It just launched ahead of iOS 5 to not much fanfare. After spending some time with “Find my Friends”, it’s clearly not a social network play, as we had thought it might be. It’s a utility app to keep tabs on people, and I honestly don’t think it will catch on.

Here is Apple’s official description of the “Find my Friends” app:

Your friends mark the spot.

Meet up with friends at an outdoor concert. Keep track of the family during a day on the ski slopes. Or see when your out-of-town guest has finally made it past baggage claim. The Find My Friends app is a great way to share your location with people who are important to you.* Friends who share their location with you appear on a map so you can quickly see where they are and what they’re up to. And since Find My Friends works with Contacts and Maps, you can do things like find the quickest route to a surprise party — and avoid running into the birthday girl — all at once.

It sounds social to me.

Adding friends

Unlike most Apple apps, “Find my Friends” is not impressive at all. It’s hard to navigate, and it’s not straightforward on how you would get started with sharing your location, or even who you’d share it with.

Sending requests to friends requires an email from you, which you use your address book to lookup. The only problem is that you have to send the request to the Apple ID email address, and a lot of people I know have different email addresses for theirs. So, you may have to ask someone for their Apple ID email address to even get started. That’s a non-starter for me, honestly. Apple should have just used the brand new Twitter integration to authenticate a username of some sort, or at least tie your accounts together.

After someone sends you a request and you accept, you’re not prompted to follow them back. You have to send them a request, and this could take some time. It’s just not a very fluid user experience at all, even if “Find my Friends” isn’t supposed to be a social network.

Since “Find my Friends” is tied into the address book, you have to make sure that your contacts have photos, or the app will look even more boring.

Seeing where your friends are

Once the both of you have accepted each others request, you can tap on your friend and see their location. In real-time. As in where their phone is right this second. This is just odd, as an app like foursquare prompts you to check-in to a place you think is worthwhile to share with your friends. My exact coordinates in the world aren’t interesting to anyone at all. Well at least not anyone I’d accept a follow request from.

Who would actually use this?

Perhaps the main usage of this app might be for families. I could see a Mom and Dad making their 16-year-old son or daughter turn this app on, so that they can keep tabs on them. Even then, it feels like an invasion of privacy, and a half-baked idea from Apple. Socially speaking, foursquare’s new Radar feature is perfect for this type of “bat signal”. You really have to be close friends with someone to use this app, or even to figure out how to use this app. It even requires you to log-in upon every app open.

Maybe I’m missing something here, but “Find my Friends” just falls flat. It feels undone and feels like something carved out of “Find my Phone” and made to look cool and social. It misses the mark in a big way, though. For the record, I’ve gotten one follow request, from The Next Web writer Matthew Panzarino. Because I asked him to send it to me for this post.

iPhone: Social location-tracking app Foursquare released a new update today for the iPhone, adding a new feature called Radar. Radar pays attention to what you're following on Foursquare and alerts you when you're near any followed location. For example, if you're following a Top 10 Dessert Restaurant list and happen to be near one of the restaurants, you'll receive a notification from Foursquare to remind you to check it out. This update seems to require iOS 5, so be sure to upgrade and get yourself set up first. More »

The next update to Foursquare’s iPhone app for iOS 5 will pester you even more about things to do nearby. The new feature is called Radar, and it pulls suggestions from FourSquare’s Explore feature. Depending on your location, it might suggest a nearby restaurant, or remind you that the coffee shop on your to-do list is nearby. It will also tell you when your friends are meeting nearby.

Radar pulls in Explore suggestions nearby and sends them to you as notifications so you get them even if the app is closed. Foursquare has to be really careful here. If the Radar suggestions are helpful and get people to do actually explore their cities, it will be a big hit. But if the suggestions aren’t that good, the notifications will just become annoying and people will turn them off.

Foursquare is making a big effort to move beyond the check-in as the main way users interact with the service. The idea has always been that check-ins would lead to other actions and ways to discover the places where people live and visit. Foursquare already moved in this direction with its Explore algorithm, which offers up suggestions of places to eat and things to do nearby. Now those suggestions will become even more front and center through Radar’s notifications. It also sounds like Radar will include other types of geo-based notifications as well.

Foursquare is also tweaking its logo. Gone is the purple Foursquare ball, replaced by a green one. (That purple was a bit too Yahoo for my tastes anyway). And the checkmark is a little more angled outward.

In a blog post today, location-based app foursquare (yes, intentionally no capital F apparently) announced a new feature specifically for iOS5 called ‘Radar’.

A lot of app makers are creating new features that take advantage of all of Apple’s new iOS5 functionality, and foursquare was quick out of the gates to announce its own. The update for foursquare is not on the Apple App Store yet, as we’re sure that the company is inundated with new app updates for today’s iOS5 public launch.

The company said this about Radar:

The initial vision for foursquare centered around one question: can we build something to help make the world easier to use. Until now, we’ve focused around sharing what you’re doing and building expertise, with features like checking in, tips and recommendations. Today, we’re super excited by what some of iOS 5′s newest features allow us to do. Specifically, say hi to foursquare’s ‘Radar,’ a huge step in the evolution of the foursquare vision.

Now, if you follow a list, like the 101 Best Dishes of 2011, foursquare will let you know when you’re next to one. Or you save that yoga studio to your To-Do List (because you really want to try it); we can remind you when you’re close. Or, better yet, if you’re driving home and three of your friends are getting together nearby, we’ll tell you so you can meet up. The app doesn’t even have to be open, it just works. We call it foursquare Radar, because it finds things nearby that you normally wouldn’t know about.

Telling you that you’re close to a location is a great thing for users of the app, but more importantly it’s a perfect way for merchants to gain exposure about their offerings and deals. For example, if you’re at dinner, you can be notified that a few of your friends are at a near-by bar for a night-cap. This type of functionality is something companies have tried to get right for a long time. foursquare has owned the check-in market, despite Facebook’s launch of its “Places” offering.

On a side note, the company has also changed a color that we’re familiar with. The familiar purple in the app and icon has been changed to green.

Real-time deals and opportunities are important because people increasingly have their smart phones with them at all times. The only issue about location services that are “always on” is that it tends to use up more of a smartphone’s battery, especially the iPhone 4 – then there’s the privacy issue for people who have forgotten. The iPhone 4S could have better standby time, but we won’t know for sure until we have one in our hands. With Radar, foursquare is primed to control real-time location opportunities for users.

Sharing on the web is something that we all do. Be it sharing a link on Twitter or Recommending something on Facebook, it’s something we do everyday. This is great for our friends and family, as they are seeing content that they probably wouldn’t have stumbled onto themselves. But I’m going to ask the question that nobody seems to be asking.

What’s in it for us?

Asking what we’re getting out of sharing may sound selfish. In fact, getting something in return for sharing sounds downright wrong. However, with as much time that we spend on the web curating, digging, and finding great content to share with others, we actually deserve something significant in return.

But what?

Yes, we’re getting to meet new people and keep in contact with people that we care about, and that’s very important. I’m asking a very different question though. When we share something on the web, we don’t think about the effect that it has on others. Sure, someone can retweet us, favorite our post, or like something, but that doesn’t really give us the feedback we need when we’re putting in the time to say “Hey, this is cool!”. I’m not going to focus on whether we’ll get paid for sharing, because that’s a whole different topic. I personally worry about what I’ll be able to get out of the content that I’ve shared five or ten years from now. How about when I have kids? Will I be able to show them exactly what I was checking out on November 7th, 2007? It’s not looking so bright for that so far.

I’m going to discuss how the most popular services are going about giving us something back for what we’re putting into it. Or more specifically, how these services are going about personal aggregation and analytics.

Facebook

Facebook just made the first big step in personal aggregation with its Timeline feature. It’s not publicly available yet, but it’s going to change the way we use Facebook completely. When I visit your profile, I could view things that you posted in 2008. That may sound like stalking, but really what it does is let me see how you and your tastes have evolved over the years. For example, you may have listened to a lot of Dave Matthews Band in 2008, but now you’re more of a John Mayer fan. Until Timeline, you’d have to click a “more” button over and over to go through someone’s Wall posts on Facebook. What a bad experience.

For me personally, this type of aggregation is exciting. I am really excited to remember the places I’ve been and the things that I said in the context of months and years. That’s really what Facebook was missing before Timeline, the context. A lot of other services are missing that too.

Twitter

Twitter is probably my favorite service to use. I have tweeted some of the most important milestones and moments of my life. I was using Twitter before it launched, and certainly before it went mainstream. Can I search for those tweets? No. That to me is nearly data robbery. I feel like I’ve put so much effort into Twitter for myself and for others, yet I can’t reference any of it. Twitter search only makes the last 5-7 days worth of tweets available. I can however go through my tweets by infinitely scrolling through them. Like Facebook’s wall before Timeline, that is a horrible user experience.

Twitter tells me who my followers are, who I follow, and how many times I’ve tweeted, yet leaves out all other context about what’s most important…the actual tweets. Sure, I can favorite tweets, including my own, but that’s a lot to ask.

I want to see my tweets in a timeline, I don’t want to have to work hard to browse through them. In a second I want to see what I tweeted 2 years ago today. I think we deserve that much, especially since Twitter is starting to monetize the service. For as much funding as they have, they certainly don’t seem to be putting in a lot of work into user interface and experience. Relying on third parties for these types of features won’t work, since Twitter has choked companies usage of its API.

Google+

Google+ is the new kid in town, and like all of Google’s products, it’s driven by search. That’s actually a way better experience than Twitter right now. But again, there is no interface or visualization of what I’m posting, who has shared it, and how much activity certain things have generated. Google+ has released a read-only API, so maybe some developers will build great features outside of the service itself.

The thing that worries me about this is that third-party services rarely get popular with people other than geeks. People tend to trust the main company and product, and use only what they’re given. It’s only really curious geeks and nerds who go digging for a new experience by way of a third-party. Perhaps Google+ will have an App Store like Facebook has when it launches Open Graph, so that users can find the experiences and visualizations that they want, without having to leave Google+.

FourSquare

What excited me the most about FourSquare wasn’t becoming the mayor of a venue or checking in with all of my friends. It was storing the information about where I’ve been and what I’ve done for years to come. I personally travel a lot and visit a lot of bars, restaurants, and venues. I simply can’t remember everywhere that I’ve been. FourSquare actually does an amazing job at showing you in a visual way what you’ve done and where you’ve been over the years. Unfortunately, most of this is shown on their website, which most people don’t use. Luckily, the company is weaving this data into their app more and more, showing you how many different coffee shops you’ve been to, for example.

Parents tell their kids stories about where they were on this day or that day, but generations to come are inquisitive and want the information to be completely accurate. Accurate information being readily available is essential to the future of our own personal family legacies. Imagine knowing what your Grandfather was doing and where he was in 1965, along with a photo. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who wouldn’t want to know that.

Delicious, Utopic, and bookmarking services

Bookmarking services tend to perpetuate the problem of sharing into the ether. Those services want to make it super easy for you to share and share and share, so that they can collect the best content on the web. Sure, it’s great that you can go back and reference all of the cool things you’ve found, but that’s not enough. The context of why you shared something is lost, and a “note” feature isn’t going to do it. Entering notes is boring and nobody does it. I want the things that I bookmark to be surrounded with other context, like what other things I’m doing on my computer at the time.

Things are moving fast, and it’s a real-time and instant gratification society. We’re all caught up in the world wide web and we continue to weave this web by sharing, retweeting, liking, and recommending content.

At the end of the day though, what are we going to get out of it? The internet is our digital scrapbook, after all.

I’m not asking for a paycheck or a thank you, but I think it would be nice if these important companies with a lot of funding would start thinking longer term for its users. I’ve used Twitter for over six years, Facebook for just as long, and FourSquare a few years as well. I’ve put a lot of time and energy into making sure I’ve shared and tracked all of the things that were important to me in the moment. These companies are starting to figure out how to make money on all of the things that we say and share.

It’s these services turn to remind us of why we do it in the first place.

When I ask people why they love Foursquare so much, they increasingly point to the service 4squareand7yearsago, which sends a daily email with the subject line: “Where you were a year ago on October 07, 2010. ”

The email tells you what day it was, where you went and even what the weather was like: October 07, 2010 was a Thursday. You went to 3 places. The weather was: 73°F 53°F.

It then lists your check-ins, venue descriptions, along with comments and who you checked in with. One friend last night told me that service has even prompted him to leave more comments with his check-ins.

Today, the mad geniuses behind the popular web app have released “And7YearsAgram,” its new Instagram-from-a-year-ago service that sends you a daily email with, “What did you see on October 07 2010?”

Sign up here for a visual glimpse of your past. If you already use the first service, your accounts will be linked so you’ll receive both in the same email. I already know this will encourage me to take more Instagram photos. I just hope the boys are somehow making money out of this awesome free service.

Reward programs started in small coffee shops, cafes and restaurants all over the world, and Perka wants to replace the physical punchcard system with a newer mobile experience with its iOS and Android apps.

The service targets local merchants who want to reward customers who are regulars. Up until now, you’ve had a physical card that a store would stamp or punch, and once the card filled up you’d get something for free. It’s a pretty simple model and one that’s been around for a long time. Perka is beta testing its service in Portland and Seattle for the time being.

How it works

For a customer, the company touts the apps simplicity.

• Check-in to the establishment using the Perka app
• Give an employee your name
• Collect a stamp towards reward when you pay

It sounds simple enough, but we have to wonder how quickly this can be done considering it involves an extra step that is not as fast a simple punch of a card. For example, if there isn’t strong WiFi or 3G signal at a particular place, this might slow things down.

Foursquare has a model that gives customers who check-in a coupon or deal once they’ve visited a few times, but it’s not as memorable as the old punchcard model. There’s something that’s really fun in getting an entire punchcard filled out, especially when you get something for free when you do.

I had a chance to interview Perka Co-Founder Rob Bethge today.

TNW: What about punch cards made you decide to build a mobile experience around them?

Rob Bethge: Paper punch cards are pretty much one of the only loyalty marketing tools available to small businesses, but they have very mixed results due to their analog nature. Our goal is to build a powerful marketing platform for these local businesses. The humble paper punchcard is the thin edge of the wedge that leads to a meaningful loyalty program.

What merchants need is a capable platform to manage their loyalty programs, the analytics to help them measure success and low-cost technology to make it happen. Given the fact that mobile technology is becoming ubiquitous among consumers, it seemed the obvious choice for us to deliver the Perka service with smartphone apps and text messaging.

TNW: Who is using your service right now, and any stories or stats on what they’ve experienced?

Rob Bethge: We have approximately 50 businesses running Perka today, in the Pacific Northwest. We serve small independent shops and are in discussion with regional chains. One typical example is JazzKats, an independent coffee shop in Portland that has created a loyalty program with three offers to encourage customers to come back in the afternoon for sandwiches and desserts in addition to a coffee drink in the morning. In short, the case study demonstrates that sales are up and that their Perka service is causing a profitable change in customer behavior.

TNW: How easy is it for a business to start using Perka? How much does it cost them?

Rob Bethge: All merchants need to do to get started is to contact us, and we will arrange for a loyalty expert to design a custom program with them. Our pricing is subscription based, and includes the merchant device (an iPod Touch). Merchants pay by the month for as long as they are satisfied with our service and the increased customer visits that the Perka cardless loyalty program delivers.

TNW: What areas do you plan to expand to next?

Rob Bethge: Although originally conceived for small neighborhood cafes, coffee shops and pizza parlors, a wider array of merchant types have contacted us about creating incentive programs for them. We now have all types of businesses in addition to quick service food and beverage, and are pleased to be running programs for toy stores, sports pubs and pool halls.

We will be rolling out the full-service Perka loyalty program over the coming months to cities across the U.S. While an important part of our business model, and service promise, is the direct consulting with the small business owners, we will eventually offer a less involved basic program that will be available for neighborhood merchants anywhere.

TNW: Do you plan on keeping the service simple or do you want to add more gaming and complexity to the notion/idea of Perks/punch cards?

Rob Bethge: What Perka offers is the power of professional marketing tools made accessible for neighborhood merchants. We work with these business owners to create and operate their individual loyalty programs. The set of features that are important to them, that create additional value from their existing loyal customers, is where we are focused. We have a roadmap of additional functionality that we expect will be included over time, that all focus on tools that help shop owners increase the value of their business and deliver better customer service to their loyal customers.

It sounds like the company has a laser focus on loyalty programs without a lot of extra steps or hassle. Perka could help businesses by giving them a better way of tracking who spends the most time in their shop, and could impress a few customers with their advanced technology. The company is currently seeking its first round of funding.

I for one lose punchcards all of the time, whereas I never forget my phone. Hopefully Perka expand to San Francisco soon.

There are a lot of social check-in apps out there. We know that FourSquare, Facebook, and Gowalla are the heavy hitters. There are some niche apps trying to steal a bit of the market with small twists and features. Some of them are even using FourSquare’s API.

crowdmug for iOS is doing just that, by showing you pictures and video in real-time from venues you might be interested in going to. It would also like you to post pictures of places around you, and you could actually earn some money from the community when you do it.

Take a photo, leave a photo

For example, if you’re at a restaurant, just take a picture or video with crowdmug, add the location, which is powered by FourSquare, and you’re done. The next time someone looks for places close to them, they might see what you posted. If it looks crowded, maybe they won’t go at all.

It’s an interesting twist on location and media sharing.

Earn some money

This feature got our attention. If someone in the community really wants to see what a place looks like through a picture or video, they can submit a request and put a dollar amount to how much they’re willing to pay for the community to do deliver it to them.

If you’re paying for a photo you can make a deposit to the app in any amount using a credit card. If you’ve gotten paid for taking photos, you can ‘cash out’ using Paypal, or by receiving a check.

The only thing I’ve thought of that makes sense for this feature is if you’re apartment hunting and you’re out of town. Perhaps someone can go for you, take a picture or shoot a walkthrough video for you. I’m not sure how much that’s worth though, and we suppose that crowdmug is willing to find out.

Here is a video demo of crowdmug:

You can follow cities, and check out all of the media being shared in real-time if you like. Say you’re homesick to see Philadelphia, perhaps you could check in and hope that people are posting things. There’s not a lot of content yet, as the app hasn’t gotten a lot of traction as of yet. crowdmug promises that an Android version is coming soon. It’s going to take a pretty good sized userbase to get crowdmug off of the ground.

I’m currently writing this to you from Courtney & Jess’s apartment. That’s an official Foursquare location. It pops up on Instagram, Foodspotting, and on the web. Along with photos, comments and tips.

A few months ago, Foursquare changed how venues categorized as ‘homes’ showed up on the app to help protect users’ privacy of people’s homes. This meant that ‘homes’ only showed up in the ‘nearby places’ list if you were friends with the creator of the venue, if you’d checked in there before, or if you searched for it specifically by name.

For the past few months, the devs at the popular New York City startup gave its venue database a massive overhaul and re-categorized numerous venues as homes. And today, Foursquare announced it’s making homes even more private:

• Now, only the person who created the ‘home’ and their friends can see the address on the venue page.
• Similarly, on the venue page, only those same people can see the map pin. Everyone else will see a map randomly centered somewhere near the address, with the zoom pulled out a bit.
• The same rules apply if you share it on Facebook or Twitter.

It also added a new ‘Report a problem’ link, which allows users to report that a place is their home.

 A Foursquare little known fact: the most popular superhero-related home name is the ‘Batcave’.

Shutterstock/Edw