From the makers of Brightkite comes
Check.in, a service that aims to alleviate "severe check-in fatigue" brought on by the rise in location-based services like
Gowalla and
Foursquare (and
Yelp!,
MyTown,
Whrrl,
Hot Potato, the recent Foursquare-gunning
Kickball and more, not to mention
Brightkite, too).
I've used the web-based Check.in (twitter: @checkdotin) app for about the past week and have mixed opinions at this stage. The service is very much still in Beta, so I imagine we can expect further progress in the near future. The screenshots here show the typical check-in process — namely, (1) firing up the app, (2) the service locating you, (3) a listing of venues or search results if you're trying to find a particular spot (like in Viget's case, which isn't listed in Brightkite's results), (4) matching locations across services and (5) confirmation that you're checked in (or not). It's pretty straightforward.
Check.in seems spot on with Foursquare integration, but is definitely dodgy when it comes to Brightkite and Gowalla. I don't think I've ever had a successful check-in with Gowalla yet, which is disappointing since that's my go-to service. Hopefully Check.in gets buttoned up on this front very soon.
Integration issues like these are usually just growing pains, but I'd venture to say that Check.in isn't going to grow very big. The app does help to alleviate "check-in fatigue," but it's pretty hands-off when it comes to tying in the related benefits of each service — e.g., finding and swapping items on Gowalla and becoming the mayor of venues on Foursquare. Unless Check.in can tap into these additional features and benefits of each service, its utility will remain limited.
Posted via email from Kevin’s posterous