Yelp or Foursquare: Where would you rather check-in?

I have conflicting feelings about Foursquare. On the one hand, it’s a kind of boring concept '“ a phone app that lets people know where you are via check-ins? Sounds a lot like Twitter but with less words (and who knew that was even possible?) But in spite of this, I use Foursquare pretty regularly – and I not-so-secretly enjoy it. It’s fun collecting badges and points; it really feeds into my first world-bred need to acquire useless stuff.

But at the end of the day, I’m not a huge fan of Foursquare because I can’t really connect to anything substantive with it. So, I was really excited when Yelp decided to rip off Foursquare’s idea and create badges for their iPhone check-ins. Having the ability to research businesses, read reviews, write reviews, and collect badges is almost too titillating for me… almost.

There’s been some backlash with this new unveiling, though, and the most articulate article I’ve read is on Scobleize. He basically says that Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley should be sweating; Yelp seems to be thisclose to breaking down his business model. The comment board is filled with some choice Yelp-bashing that makes for an interesting read. To quote Kelly Bensimon, “Hate is part of the ecosystem.”

Does anyone here use either of these apps? Welcome to your future, people.

Photo compliments of the Official Yelp Blog.