If you’re one of the hip, tech savvy, Starbucks swilling, series finale of Lost-lamenting, smart phone-toting, internet junkies so prominent in this modern society, you may be aware of the latest fad in social media, GPS location apps.  These applications, such as Gowalla or Foursquare, tap into both man’s craving for social interaction, and his need to broadcast useless information to anyone unlucky enough to be on his contact list.

For the uninitiated, GPS location apps allow you to “check-in” with your smart phone (or iPad) when you’re out and about, recording your location and broadcasting it to any friends tied in to your social network.  The idea here is that your friends will see that you’ve checked in at said location, and either come along to join you, or have a much easier time avoiding you.

Being smack-dab in the middle of the target demographic (I’m so active within the realm of social media, you could call me Neo), I’ve been using both aforementioned apps for a number of months now, and several annoying behaviors of users have come to light.  In an effort to correct these issues (and yes, exercise a little self-righteousness), here are Ben’s Geolocation App Rules of Etiquette.

1. No checking in at places you’re just passing by. Both Gowalla and Foursquare award points for checking in at different venues, thus sparking some incentive to just press “check-in” at every venue within range.  This defeats the purpose of the app, is totally obvious by looking at the offending user’s profile (as check-ins are time-stamped), and is punishable by being punched in the face.
2. Don’t send your check-ins to other social networks without providing useful information or at least attempting witty commentary. The popular geolocation apps allow you to forward your check-in information to other popular social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.  They also allow you to attach a comment.  Twitter is already full of useless commentary, and most people would find “Just fought off a legion of ninjas (@ the park)” more interesting than the default “I just checked in (@ the park)”.
3. Don’t add your (or your friends’) current place of residence as a venue. If Facebook or Twitter is any indication, many people don’t seem to realize that if you put information on the internet, ANYONE CAN READ IT.  That being said, posting coordinates to your home on an app that specifically tells people when you’re not there seems like an obvious mistake to avoid.  I’ve definitely felt inclined to knock on a stranger’s door after seeing a nearby home on Foursquare, wait for them to answer then say, “Just checking in” or “As the mayor of this location, I demand to use your bathroom!”
4. Don’t check in anywhere that might reveal sensitive information. By the same token as keeping your home’s location private, there are other places you might not want to alert the entire world’s attention to.  Checking in at the doctor’s office and commenting, “Getting this rash checked out.  Hope it’s not contagious!” is ill advised if you’d like to hang out with your friends ever again.  Places like banks, courtrooms, trashy nightclubs, and adult bookstores should also be kept private.

Well, there you have it, the final ruling on how to properly use Foursquare, Gowalla, or any other upcoming geolocation apps.  After all, if someone blogs about it, it MUST be true!  However, if you think you have any credible addendums, disagreements, or additional rules, list them in the comments.

Shakespeare famously wrote, “What’s in a name?  That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”  While that sentiment is admirable in the case of two feuding families in fair Verona, or if you’re hitting on that English Lit major at the bar, the same sadly does not apply to the URL (Uniform Resource Locator, or what people type into their browser) of your website.  Obviously you should avoid cryptic abbreviations and list the name of your brand as closely as possible in order for your target audience to find your site, but you should also consider what your website name says (literally) about you.

Well, that’s enough for the sugar-coating.  Today we’re going to talk about URL’s that are unintentionally…let’s say “inappropriate”.  Depending on the name of your business or brand, it’s possible to snag a naughty site name due to pure circumstance.  Now, is this a subject that only applies to a niche of website owners?  Yes.  Can it be considered immature to blog about the subject?  Perhaps.  Is the subject of unintentionally dirty-sounding websites hilarious?  Oh, you bet your sweet bippy!

Now based on the research I’ve done, there are 3 ways to deal with this issue.  The first is obtaining a new URL or modifying the exiting one slightly, the second is feigning ignorance, and the third is running with it like an Olympic sprinter.  At the risk of raising a few eyebrows of the IT department who will no doubt be VERY interested in my browsing history, let’s look at a few examples!

In the “Oh crap, we better change our URL” category, there’s the official site for Lake Tahoe (formerly gotahoe.com), which is now gotahoenorth.com, and tech resource site Experts Exchange (I’ll let you figure out that one yourself), which was slightly modified to experts-exchange.com.  The “maybe no one will notice” category includes a resource for those seeking a therapist (therapistfinder.com), a site for finding who represents famous celebs (whorepresents.com), and a humble blog for an art gallery in my hometown of Columbia, SC (ifartgallery.blogspot.com).  I could only find one example of embracing an unfortunate URL, but it’s definitely a stellar choice.  The uniquely named Ferreth & Jobs law firm can be found online at ferrethandjobs.com.  Don’t forget to buy a t-shirt.

So there you have it, a few examples illustrating the importance of taking a closer look at your web address.  While they succeed in being memorable, hopefully they’ve taught you the importance of a hyphen.

It’s understandable, to a degree at least. After all, the whole purpose of a website is to promote you, your business, or to showcase your service, so shouldn’t you have complete control over what the user experiences? If that includes resizing their browser window or pumping your favorite tune the whole time the site is up, so be it! Right?

The short answer is no, but since this is a blog and not a facebook post, allow me to elaborate. Forcing the browser window to resize and/or adding background music (especially if there is no way to mute it) may seem like a cool, unique way to customize the experience of visiting your site. However, doing so is pretty much the online equivalent to TV commercials that jack up their volume to stand out from regular programming. They’re more likely to make a potential client exclaim, “Argh, this is ANNOYING!” than “What a captivating user experience!” Now are there exceptions to this rule of internet etiquette? Well, yes and no.

Yes, if your website is music related in some way, and having the user rock out to some sweet jams while they browse your site makes sense. Examples include musician websites or sites that are in some way music related (such as a music festival, music school, or if your beer is named after a musical genre). Please note that even in these cases, you should always include a visible music player with a pause/play button.

No, however, if you think it’s a good idea to force the browser to resize. EVER. I (and most web users) would rather visit an ugly site that maintains my browser dimensions than a beautiful site that takes my Firefox session, with its many many open tabs, and squishes it down to one website’s “optimal viewing size”. It just follows common courtesy: You don’t cut people off in traffic, you don’t talk to them with food in your mouth, and you don’t mess with their browser!