Foursquare-Not just a game for 5th grade recess anymore

Findings from a Forrester Research report released yesterday showed less than five percent of online users in the U.S. have ever used a location-based application on a mobile device. That statistic aside, almost 85 percent said they were not familiar with the applications at all.

For those of you who may be in that 85 percent group, a location-based application is accessible through a mobile device and utilizes the ability to use geographical positioning to track the location of the user. Using a smart phone, a mobile website or via text message, users can state their current location and find the venue they are located at on the platform and choose to “check in” to that specific place.

The app check-in can also serve as a game, where users are rewarded badges or stickers based on their check-in actions. These actions include being the first to check in to a location, checking into a location more than anyone else or just by completing the action the badge or stickers denote (i.e. earning the “gym rat” badge on Foursquare by checking into 10 gyms in 30 days). Individuals can even become the “rockstar” or “mayor” of a location, depending on the app, which means they have checked in to a certain location the most.

Some of the most popular include Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt.

What’s also interesting to note about location-based media is that women are the minority users. According to Forrester, close to 80 percent of location-based apps are men and almost 70 percent are between the ages of 19 and 35.

For those few who do use these services, they don’t use them often. The report said only one percent of users post an update more than once a week.