Facebook Places, Foursquare, & @GoMiso: The Future of #Checkins

I tried using Facebook Places today, and was met with nothing but epic failure on my Motorola Droid. I can only assume it had more to do with a crappy GPS than the actual application. But oh yeah, if you guys didn't know ... Facebook announced its venture into LBSM (location based social media) yesterday. Here's the official TNTML social commentary on social media ... aka the real time chat on my uh, Facebook wall.

Can I just say, this is just the greatest thing since sliced bread. Literally ... sliced bread ...

yeah baby, cut me like that ... uh huhhhh!!!!

Alrite, sim simma ... for reals ... I've been using FourSquare for about the last year or so, and people still think I'm nuts. Hence why I even emailed Foursquare back in January with my idea for an experiment I could conduct to establish value. The nerd community is fairly divided. A lot of peeps I know dig Foursquare and are heavily addicted to checkins, and the others refuse to join because they never leave their house. Totally kosher either way, I don't care how anyone chooses to lead their life, as long as they're happy ... but let's at least give people options.

Stories have been buzzing all day that, Facebook Places is going to be a Foursquare killer ... and I could not disagree more. No really - given, as long as Naveen and Dennis honestly don't mess up royally on a business management level (ala Brad Greenspan post myspace LiveVideo venture *cough cough*), the public's diehard love for Foursquare I think will only add value to location based social media as a whole.

Facebook has a built in base of 500 million users. I mean crazy, crazy, crazy ... yet, people still never understood WHY they needed to checkin places. That whole stalker thing still freaked people out. This will IMMEDIATELY establish value in the public's brain of why they think its cool to checkin. Because whether or not you want to, your friends will still be able to check you in, unless of course you opt out - but again, I really do not believe the majority of people will.

I'll let mashable break down Facebook Places for you. I personally have yet to use it, although yes - I was checked in by a fellow TNTML nerd while I was at the Dodgers game tonight. I can't speak to my personal experience for it, but HOLY CRAPPPPPPP!!! I am so excited about where this is going!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the actual post.

This appeared on my wall.

Don't leave your house a lot, but still dig the desire to checkin? Don't worry, try @gomiso. I just met with their CEO a few months back, who is just all shades of awesome applesauce ... and now baby is their time to shine. For reals ... their app just became available on the Droid, and I totally downloaded it this morning. It's awesome. Easy to use, and really, really, really, cool!!! However, again - we need more. Foursquare is great because of the tips AND badges. Yes, @gomiso does have badges which are pretty and all - but the tips are the total tipping point for me. That time that I was at Urth Cafe, and wanted help deciding between an Americano or a latte, and I read the tip of how awesome their foam was, it just about made my nerdy little life. For reals, it made my life. I love being a nerd!!!!!!

Anywho, given the current trend, I think there's only about 3 months before checkins becomes mainstream for entertainment, web based or otherwise. We're going to start to get a feel for checkins via Facebook Places, and again - I think it is only going to add that much more of a value to Foursquare and @gomiso ... but @gomiso really need to step up their game. One thing I LOVEEEE is that anytime I checkin on @gomiso, someone, somewhere will tweet me and tell me some tidbit about something I am watching.

See, today ... @adamreisinger commented about watching the movie 21.

All the buttons on the elevator were set to awesome on that one, and boy oh boy, I dug it. That will add value to my entertainment, and will get me to want to checkin more. Again, if Marky Mark and his funky bunch are going to introduce it, I think it's fab oh fab that services like @gomiso can really add value to people's experiences even if they don't leave the house. Everyone is going to have that urge to checkin and engage ... so give the people want they want, and keep them coming back by ADDING VAALLUUUEEEEEE!!!!! #Bah! I just get so darn excited. Thanks for listening!

Download @gomiso everyone!!!! Now its available on the droid and iphone - so you have no excuse.

#nerdsunite

#SocialMedia: Making voice calls irrelevant?

I'm so deeply fascinated by where all of this "social media stuff" is going, and what it means for standard operation procedures of communication.

Think about it, back in the day dudes were all, can I get yo number? I totally wanna like take you out on a date. Now, that feels so archaic to me. Do you know when the last time was that I actually used my phone for a voice call? Seriously, I am the queen of texting, and using my phone solely for livestreaming and appeasing my addiction to location based social media.

I HATE HATE HATE talking on the phone. Texting is just so sweet and to the point. On skype? EVEN BETTER!!!! I love, love, love, me some video chat! I don't really care about "catching up" with people. Call me slightly socially awkward, but if I want to know something about you - I will look at your Facebook page. If I want to see where you've been, I can look at my Foursquare feed. Sitting on the phone with you for an hour talking about the weather and your dog Mitten who slammed his paw in the slider the other day - does nothing for me. I ALREADY READ ABOUT IT ON FACEBOOK!!!!!!!!!! I'm a totally straight shooter - and I talk to hundreds if not thousands of people all day every day in some capacity across all the workable elements of social media. Our brains are just so stimulated when we converse online. I see an avatar, or video feed ... I can have 10 open windows at the same time, and links to videos or relevant information for whatever we're talking about. How the heck can a phone call compete with that!?!?

SOO!!! I guess my bottom line here is that the world is changing. You can say it's becoming slightly less personal, but I like to think of it as getting realer. I didn't really care about the shit you were telling me before - I just had to agree and do make that whole sound where you could tell I was nodding my head and listening to you, when I was really doing laundry. I don't hide my multi-tasking online. I really am that interested in getting to know you, just on my time, and in ways that I choose to receive said information.

If you really do want to talk to me, I'm totally all eyes, just not ears.

Skype ID: JenFriel

Twitter: @JenFriel

Facebook: www.facebook.com/jenfriel

FourSquare: www.Foursquare.com/user/jenfriel

... and by posting this, I've totally taken the fun out of you looking for it. #SCORE!! =)

Brilliant Marketing: #LastExorcism goes viral

I hate the expression gone viral. Especially when its spoken by the people that actually made said video. It feels too meh. The people declare when something has gone viral, not the studio. BUUUTTTTTTT this is actually pretty friggen smart!! Kudos @EliRoth and co!!!

Bloody Disgusting reader 'Dre Skull' just tipped us off to a new viral marketing campaign taking the web by storm. It looks as if Lionsgate has tapped into Chatroulette with hopes of freaking out bored teens hoping to stumble across some nudity. Instead, a lucky few will bare witness to one of the following creepy ass clips that tease The Last Exorcism. Thumbs up to Lionsgate for coming up with a great (seriously, this is brilliant) new way of spreading the word! In theaters August 27, after a career spent helping the devout through prayer and trickery, Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) invites a film crew to document his final fraudulent days as an exorcist. Soon his faith is truly tested when a desperate plea from the father of a possessed girl (Ashley Bell) brings him face to face with the devil himself.

The Last Exorcism is in theaters 8/27

Twitter #lists are down ...

Don't get your nerdy knickers twisted. This isn't your brain on drugs.

That's your brain on drugs ... any questions?

HAHA! Totes kids.

Anywhooo ... don't know whats kickin chicken, but should be back soon. Sit tight!

Movie Review: #TheSwitch

DUDES!!!! I just got back from seeing The Switch, and omg omg omg ... I really liked it!

*cue 4sq checkin*

Synopsis: An unmarried 40-year-old woman turns to a turkey baster in order to become pregnant. Seven years later, she reunites with her best friend, who has been living with a secret: he replaced her preferred sperm sample with his own.

Yeah ... sounds like fun, doesn't it? I honestly went because I had a free ticket, and wanted to unplug from the interwebz for 2 hours ... I was shocked at how much I liked it.

It was marketed towards being this weird romantic comedy with Jennifer Aniston commanding her normally naggy lead, and it was the EXACT opposite; Jason Bateman commanded the screen and boy oh boy was he good!!!

I'm never one to want to give things away, but I can say this ... it was a realist's romantic comedy. Remove the Lifetime, Hallmark channel components, add in a neurotic hypochondriac and a kid that absolutely stole the show ... and oohhhhh loorrddyyyy you have a seriously unapologetically awesome flick. From the cinematography, to the music supervision the execution and general composition of the film was shockingly good - and yes, I hate to admit it ... that a nerdy little tear even escaped my eye at one poignant part.

It was touching without being molesty, sweet without being overly saturated, and fresher than Will Smith circa 1990.

Kudos, Jason Bateman ... KUDOS!!!!

The Switch opens in theaters this Friday!

PS. Juliette Lewis and Jennifer Aniston both totally made whoopie to Brad Pitt, was it a coincidence that the alleged sperm donor's bro bro looked EXACTLY like Senor Pitt? #JustSayin