With the World Cup, U.S. Open, Comic-Con, SXSW and countless other events and brands developing promotions with location services, we’re calling 2010 the “Year of the Check-in.”  From iPad, to Blackberry, to Droid, and everything in between, we’re more connected to our friends and neighborhoods than ever before. If you’re having a hard time determining which geolocation app is for you, below is our cheat sheet to finding the best downloads for deals, badges, pins and even finding a new TV show.

FourSquare
Easily seen as the leader in location apps, FourSquare’s more than two million users have helped skyrocket this startup into application super stardom. Encouraged by the opportunity to win badges by checking in multiple times at designated locations, as well as by area specials offered by local businesses, FourSquare focuses on building community and encouraging repeat business. Though the app encourages checking in to earn points throughout the day, partnerships with media giants like the New York Times, Bravo, and CNN have overshadowed the original purpose of participating in a game to earn points against other users .

GoWalla
Though GoWalla’s network is small at fewer than 500,000 users, this app has become a heavy hitter in the world of geolocation partnerships and promotions, working with brands such as Nike and Paul Frank. Users can check in, create a network of friends, share tips and earn pins to add to their GoWalla virtual passport. Once embraced mostly by California iPhone users, as of July, this app is now available on Blackberry and is increasing its reach beyond the West Coast.

Loopt
The original geolocation service for mobile devices, Loopt now boasts 4 million users since its launch in 2005. With variants like LooptPulse and LooptMix, the application allows users not only to track and contact friends, but almost recommend venues and locations, and even meet new friends. Rather than earning pins or badges, the new LooptStar now integrates brand rewards in the form of discounts and free music.

Others to watch:
MyTown
With more than 2.5 million users, this app for iPhone and Facebook is a combination of FourSquare and Farmville, creating a Monopoly-esque game where along with check-ins, players purchase property and collect rent.

GoMiso
With only 12,000 users, this app for iPhone may have a small network, but also has the most potential. Not limited to larger urban areas, GoMiso is the check-in game for TV lovers. Currently running a large Tour de France promotion, GoMiso allows users to check in to TV, films, and web series, and earn badges along the way. User numbers may be small, but there are already promotions with TNT, FOX, and Digg.

Google Latitude
http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html
Similar to Loopt, Google Latitude may not be one of the most talked about apps, but as with all things Google, the numbers are impressive. More than 3 million users use the online and mobile app (which runs through Google Maps) to track and contact their friends, thanks to integration with GTalk.

More Resources:
ReadWriteWeb

Mashable

GeekSugar

I have an ongoing obsession with time.  Being a working mom of two, I don’t have enough time in my day for everything I want to do and I want to make the most of every moment (doesn’t everyone?)  I recently read an interesting blog by Seth Godin citing Clay Shirky’s theory of cognitive surplus.  Cognitive surplus is the idea that it is better to do something than do nothing.

So for instance, people who are using their time not watching TV and actually engaging in life can get some really cool stuff done and the collective societal output could be amazing.  Use that time to volunteer, get involved with your community, write a book, start an online community, connect with friends online, read… you get the idea.  Shirky has noticed the trend of talented people putting five or six hours an evening to work instead of to waste. Add that up across a million or ten million people – pretty cool.  Now I just need to put it to practice myself.  Perhaps right after the series finale of LOST…and of course the finale of American Idol. Here are a few ways that some of the Turner staffers engage in life outside of work:

Christine Turner serves on the board for Heart for Africa and volunteers at her kids’ schools.

Angela Berardino runs Mile High Social Media Club.

Efrem Rodriguez is deeply involved as an organizer for Ignite Boulder.

Julie Wagoner runs an online entertainment zine called The Media Fix where she interviews recording artists.

So what projects do you work on with your free time?

Everyone wants to generate a Twitter trending topic, at least among the social media-inclined. Whether it’s a new meme like #followfriday or a particularly interesting event, it’s an achievement that has been cordoned off for most of us, given Twitter’s method of assigning Trending Topic status to only those trends that generate a large number of tweets.

That method has lately changed, instilling hope in those of us who can’t easily generate millions of tweets at once, though we can certainly inspire a spike of heated tweeting.

As this article from dear ol’ Mashable explains, Twitter has adjusted the algorithm it uses to detect Trending Topics so that it rewards concentrated tweeting activity around a particular topic instead of overall volume.

The new algorithm identifies topics that are immediately popular, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis, to help people discover the “most breaking” breaking news from across the world.

I interpret that to mean that you don’t need a massive amount of tweets to generate an authentic Trending Topic, just a period of intense and ardent tweeting that is significant enough to get Twitter’s attention.

Does this mean that my next Iron Chef-themed party (#efchef) will likely result in a bona fide Trending Topic? Unlikely. But for marketers, it does mean that the odds of acquiring that hallowed “Trending” distinction for your event or meme has increased dramatically.

Every week, I scan dozens (sometimes dozens of dozens) of articles about social media and PR and, occasionally, random trends. I bookmark and forward and catalogue all of these great articles, but I haven’t been great about sharing them regularly…until now. With that introduction, we’re launching a new feature called What I’m Reading Right Now.

The Big Money Facebook 50
I’m generally intrigued by all of Slate’s lists, and one of their sub-sections, The Big Money team – which focuses on readable, approachable “money” topics – has quickly proved they live up to Slate’s impressive standards. Their list of brands doing well on Facebook gives some great ideas and a few surprises.

There’s an App for That: Mobile is the Next Frontier for Brand Engagement
Hopefully not a surprise to anyone working in social media, Brian Solis’ post on mobile’s increasing integration into social media applications and platforms gives some great examples of “what’s next.”

How to Use Twitter Lists to Create Reputation Management Problems
Michael Gray’s post on the potentially evil use of Twitter to damage brands was fascinating and made me rethink a few strategies.

Google Adds Live Updates to Results
The article everyone is reading right now.

Last Friday, I spoke about “Social Media in the Travel Industry” at the Governor’s 2009 Colorado Tourism Conference in Pueblo, Colo. And I found myself scheduled a day after the crowd saw a great session by Eric Elkins of Widefoc.us, who covered many of the same topics I usually touch on.

So in the interest of mixing it up, I indulged in the time-honored tradition of Top Ten lists and created my own – specifically on the 10 topics the travel industry should be paying attention to as they plan for 2010 budgets and strategy. I’m including a link to the full presentation at the bottom of the post, but in short, my pick of hot topics:

1. Online brand management: claiming your brand name everywhere possible, even if you can’t or won’t use it in the short term.
2. Setting up (and budgeting for) a monitoring service. Although I touched on both paid and unpaid options, I feel this is one area where it makes sense to budget for rather than trying to cobble together “free” services that ultimately demand many, many employee hours to manage.
3. Building tracking into social media campaigns, from URL tracking to channel-specific offers.
4. Systematically handling online reviews, on par with all of the customer feedback channels the travel industry has been so diligent about creating over the last decade. For example, the check-stuffer report cards, the post-stay emails, the phone surveys….those are great, but can’t be done at the expense of ignoring more public reviews on TripAdvisor and other third-party sites.
5. Managing online business listings, such as Yelp and Google Maps, with current content, images and links
6. Integration of social media into email and websites
7. A growing use of multimedia content. Travel blogs are great, and I read a lot of them, but I’m looking forward to seeing more integrated audio/video/map content.
8. The impact of mobile usage in all forms of digital communication
9. Geo-tagged content, which is increasingly being combined with mobile devices
10. The use of technology partnerships to expand budgets and reach

Looking for the whole presentation? You can find it here

I read a fascinating article on Mashable this morning about how more and more web users are sidestepping a visit to Google.com in favor of the built-in Google search bar found in most browsers. When I thought about it, I realized that I very seldom visit Google.com – yet I use their search engine almost exclusively to find things online.

What this suggests is that browsers are becomingly vastly more versatile as a vehicle for exploring the web. As a Firefox user, I rely on extensions and plugins to expedite and enhance my browsing experience – but it hadn’t occurred to me that I had stopped visiting certain homepages altogether.

Take YouTube, for example.

I never type in www.youtube.com – not when I can just select the YouTube button in Firefox’s search bar and plug my query straight in. That takes me directly to the videos that I want to see. Thus, I never glimpse YouTube’s selection of “Most Popular Videos,” which are placed on the homepage.

Am I missing out on great content? Are external search widgets fair to websites, who see fewer pageviews (and ad impressions, as a result)?

Or do browser shortcuts give users more control, a development that is surely welcome?

Recently Flickr, the largest photo-sharing community on the web, announced that the iPhone was on track to become the predominant camera used to take pictures shared on the site. That trend isn’t just a quirk for Apple lovers; last week Facebook shared new stats showing they’ve tripled the number of people accessing the network from mobile devices in less than a year, with more than 65 million users accessing content from smartphones. And in the near future, a new Twitter API will allow developers to add latitude and longitude to any tweet.

Why should the travel industry be paying attention to these techie trends? Because in a very short amount of time, the vast majority of content that people create and then share with their networks – via Facebook, Twitter and numerous other social sites – is going be searchable not just by the captions and labels manually attached to the content, but also by the location where it was created. Geotagging is the process of adding geographical metadata to various media such as photographs, video, or websites. This extra behind-the-scenes information usually consists of latitude and longitude coordinates, though it can also include altitude, bearing, and place names. That means a simple search on a specific destination or resort could yield a goldmine of photos, videos and status updates that had previously languished on the sidelines.

Similar to the customer service revolution that occurred a decade ago when online reviews took hold via sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp, the hospitality industry will be faced with a change in how people research and decide where to spend their travel dollars. And just like the last shift in consumer behavior, some brands are going to grab this opportunity and run with it, and others won’t figure it out until it’s too late.

A few ways that geotagged content is already relevant to the travel industry:

• Flickr has been a pioneer in this space, with a map interface that allows you to view more than 85 million tagged images on an easily navigated atlas (try searching on your favorite vacation destination)
• Business listings within Google Maps are boldly showing geotagged images within the User Content area of the listing
• Numerous media outlets – particularly travel media – are geotagging their content, and individuals and bloggers can now choose from a variety of applications that use maps to visually display their trips. For example, the TBEX RoadTrip blog created earlier this summer by a group of professional travel bloggers trekking from Seattle to Chicago for a conference integrated images, tweets, suggestions and blog posts into an interactive setting. (Full disclosure: Our client REI ultimately sponsored some gear on this trip because we loved what they were doing)