This morning, Foursquare launched one of the most significant functional expansions to its check in service since it launched in 2009.  The update (to the website and iPhone v2.2, with an Android update coming later this week) includes two major additions that build up the social aspects of Foursquare, making it more that just a check in service: (1) the ability to comment on check ins and (2) the ability to include photos in check ins and tips.

Until recently, Foursquare has been positioned around gaming—deals and mayorships, leaving most social features to the heavily integrated Twitter and Facebook (links to both networks are featured on Foursquare Profiles).

Even with today’s new features, Foursquare is still holding back from becoming a full-fledged social network—see sparse profiles, and lack of status and messaging. While it’s true that these features make Foursquare more of a social network and less of a game, they strongly demonstrate a commitment to making Foursquare a “discovery tool.”  (See Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley on Bloomberg TV last month).

With pictures, Foursquare tips can become a much more relevant way to choose a place to go or an item on a menu.  While it will be very interesting to see how the Foursquare community will use commenting, Foursquare hints in its blog post announcing the feature that it could be used for discovery—when a friend sees your check in, they can comment “oh.  you should stop by the ____ , across the street”.

Additionally, the update includes the ability to quickly “share a venue” (without checking in) via SMS or email.

Lately, the post frequency here at uberlocation has slowed down a bit.  This is in part due to the season, and in part due to travel.  I’ve been in Eastern Europe—Prague and Budapest—for the past week.

In addition to keeping up with the location news, I’ve exploring the new community with my usual foray of social location services.  While Facebook Places is still dark in this part of the world, there’s a reasonably active community of Foursquare users wherever I go.

I even spotted the Foursquare logo in an ad for the Nokia C6-00 in the Budapest Metro:

The sign held by the Foursquare app reads “Engem ki tölt le?” or “Who will download me?”

Related: On the subject of Eastern Europe Foursquarers, check out the post on aboutfoursquare.com about a couple of Venetians’ quest to earn the Xperia Ischgl badge.

For the second time in two months I shelled out a few bucks for a Google service iPhone app developed by a third party, just to have Google (finally) release an official version.  It happened to me first when I bought Sean Kovacs’ GV Mobile + Google Voice Client as soon as it reappeared in the iTunes App Store.  Almost six weeks later came the official Google Voice app.

Now Google has a free app for it’s location service Google Latitude—replacing for me the $1.99 Latitudie.  It may not be surprising is that the two apps are strikingly similar.  It’s a symptom of Google Latitude’s starkness.  There are only about five things you can do with the service, and both apps cover them in about the same way.

Screenshots of the official Google app:

Screenshots of Latitudie:

Neither app is much to write home about.  However, both apps do a good job of managing persistent location (i.e. background location).  Compared to the HTML5 interface, the Official Google Latitude app makes persistent location a snap.   Looking in to the future, the official Google Latitude apps (Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile and now iPhone) could be used as a platform for a long overdue expansion of the Google Latitude service.  Or could the second iPhone app in two months be a sign of a shift in Google mobile strategy? Historically, Google has tried to run everything it can in the mobile browser.  But the jury is still out on weather they are shifting towards installed apps.

Although BrightKite was a notable innovator in the social location space, it has since become widely regarded as an “also ran” in the location services segment.  In March it did boast 2 million active users—a comparable figure to Foursquare’s user base  at the time.  But since then it has stalled while Foursquare and Facebook Places have exploded, and at the same time other location services like Gowalla and newcomers Whrrl, SCVNGR (and others) are starting to grab hold of the niche market the could have once been BrightKite’s.

Following BrightKite’s merger with mobile social company Limbo, the consolidated company is now announcing that it is abandoning it’s strict social location positioning and moving in a new direction: group messaging.

Given the momentum building behind the social location leaders, BrightKite is not the only company to change directions recently.  Gowalla, a company that less than a year ago was fighting neck and neck with Foursquare to become the standard check in service, recently added check in integration with their once-rival and Facebook Places in the hopes that they can rest on their superior mobile interface and social features.  And Loopt who led the location services trend as early as 2006, just announced last week that they too are going after “location based messaging”.

Is it possible that we are seeing the “shake out” in location services that was widely predicted when Facebook Places launched this summer?  It possible, but the walls may not be falling down just yet.  What is certainly true is that check ins are becoming a commodity, and services that once were “all about the check in” are looking for ways to differentiate.  And for now location services, like Whrrl and SCVNGR that have used check ins as a platform to deliver other content and services, are holding strong for now.

Yesterday, the crowdsourced driving and traffic app Waze closed a $25 million financing round led by Blue Run Ventures.

The Palo Alto/Tel Aviv -based company has picked up a lot of momentum in the past few months.  While the fight for the standardized venue database hasn’t yet been won, Facebook, Foursquare and a handful of location as a service companies like SimpleGeo have the market cornered.  Waze has built a valuable database of dynamic traffic data using its mobile app and 2.2 million users.  And naturally, with the new investment Waze has entered its bid to become a standard traffic database.  Their blog reads, “this will be the year of opening up our platform–data, API’s, access (more to come soon).”

I’m looking forward to seeing how they open their data given a cannibalization concern—they rely on Waze app users to collect data and there could be a risk that an app using Waze data would draw away potential Waze users.  There will no doubt be some great apps built on top of a Waze API.

Congratulations Waze.  Read the full report on the financing at VentureBeat.

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Waze revs up crowdsourced driving app with $25M

December 7, 2010 | Devindra Hardawar

Waze, makers of an innovative crowdsourced app that offers free driving directions, is on a roll. The company just announced that it has scored $25 million in a second round of funding. [read more]