Look out Foursqare and Gowalla because Twitter is jumping into the check-in game too, kind of.
The company has already turned on geo-tagging of tweets on the go and from the desktop but at its Chirp developer’s conference Wednesday, the company said it will start matching tweets if these come from a specific known location, like a restaurant or venue. Called Points of Interest, this will essentially amount to a check-in for users tweeting from that venue.
“We are not looking to duplicate the functionality of Foursquare and Gowalla,” said Twitter CEO Evan Williams. “When you are tweeting about a place, it is kind of a check-in, but we are more interested in the content about that place.”
Does this spell doom for check-in competitors? Maybe. Chances are, if you use Foursquare or Gowalla, you also use Twitter, and it would be more convenient to just use one client or app to not only know where your friends are, but also what they’re talking about. When you also consider that Facebook will probably use location-based services in a big way too, the Foursquare folks may just want to cash that potential check from Yahoo before the big boys dominate this space.
[Via TechCrunch]