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Instagram Dropping Foursquare for Facebook Places

williamlindner.com

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Re: Instagram Dropping Foursquare for Facebook Places

#21

Post by lepht »

calinet6 wrote: post #15
zaidf wrote: post #13

To all the people automatically assuming that this is a result of facebook acquiring instagram, what if this actually improves the user experience? What if instagram always wanted to integrate with facebook because they knew it was a better user experience and yet didn't because they knew facebook was instagram's #1 competitor? In that case the acquisition enables a positive. I, for one, could not give a crap about f…

The fact is, Foursquare has a truly excellent place database that's well-curated by users and is highly accurate due to the nature of their product. Facebook does not. It has a mess of duplicate places and incorrect names due to the nature of their product. Hopefully this will be an impetus for improving their location database, but until then I don't see it being a better experience at all. A contrarian "What if" qu…

I can appreciated GP's optimism, but as someone who has actually utilized both data sets in various forms this is spot on.

Foursquare's data is vastly superior, something I attribute at least partially to the fact that they've built a service that incentivizes checking in, while Facebook is more heavily scrutinized for their questionable privacy practices. It'll be interesting to see if this continues to be the case when 4sq releases Swarm.

Re: Instagram Dropping Foursquare for Facebook Places

#23

Post by loceng »

nighthawk24 wrote: post #19
rsobers wrote: post #6

The immediate result: a diminished user experience. Strategy tax in full effect.

No wonder I was not able to find newly opened restaurants and some local spots which were available before the auto-update.

Facebook doesn't seem to measure for quality, they just seem to measure for quantity..

Re: Instagram Dropping Foursquare for Facebook Places

#25

Post by wlindner »

things wrote: post #24

They seem to be following the same course with Moves, the fitness tracking app they acquired recently. You used to be able to tag locations with foursquare data, that feature was removed in the latest update. I assume facebook places will be replacing them.

WhatsApp uses Foursquare too (https://developer.foursquare.com/showcase/) so, I guess that will use Facebook Places as well.

Re: Instagram Dropping Foursquare for Facebook Places

#26

Post by untog »

I'd be interested in the views of people that aren't in the US, and especially not in Western countries. Foursquare's database is great in the US, but when I've traveled I've found it to be nowhere near as good - I wonder if - in those cases - Facebook Places is better.

Re: Instagram Dropping Foursquare for Facebook Places

#27

Post by smackfu »

wlindner wrote: post #8
ceejayoz wrote: post #3

Seems like a no-brainer. Facebook owning Instagram means this is just Facebook ditching a competitor's product for their own.

After Facebook acquired Instagram they were really clear that they wanted them to stay independent. I wonder how "independently" they made this decision to switch to Facebook Places instead of Foursquare. Instagram ads are most likely just Facebook's new ad platform. Facebook just removed their Camera app from the app store ( http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2457866,00.asp ) because Instagram IS their Camera app.

It's certainly a tough line. You can say you want to be independent, but if one service charges $$$$ and another charges $0, it's hard to pick the pricey one.

Re: Instagram Dropping Foursquare for Facebook Places

#28

Post by pbreit »

wlindner wrote: post #8
ceejayoz wrote: post #3

Seems like a no-brainer. Facebook owning Instagram means this is just Facebook ditching a competitor's product for their own.

After Facebook acquired Instagram they were really clear that they wanted them to stay independent. I wonder how "independently" they made this decision to switch to Facebook Places instead of Foursquare. Instagram ads are most likely just Facebook's new ad platform. Facebook just removed their Camera app from the app store ( http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2457866,00.asp ) because Instagram IS their Camera app.

I don't see this as a sign of lack of independence or evidence of lying. There are very good reasons for anyone to use Facebook places even if the US data is momentarily inferior. These sentiments strike me as unwarranted "gotcha" attempts that have little value.

Re: Instagram Dropping Foursquare for Facebook Places

#30

Post by antr »

loceng wrote: post #23
nighthawk24 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No wonder I was not able to find newly opened restaurants and some local spots which were available before the auto-update.

Facebook doesn't seem to measure for quality, they just seem to measure for quantity..

FWIW, Foursquare data in Europe is not very good, I think FB geo data is better. I've mentioned this before on HN, Foursquare in Europe is quite unreliable, with places appearing way off the real location, badly categorised (e.g. a restaurant categorised as a bar), etc. I guess quality on these services depends where you are.
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