This week the newest kid on the LBSN block, Facebook, introduced a game-changing new element with their Deals feature. I’ve been skeptical of Places, I’ve raged against using it, I’ve clung tight to my old familiar networks… but now I’m ready to get some payback

I’m not a dum dum, I learned the meaning of TNSTAAFL in elementary school. I fully realize that when I join a social network I am not the customer, I am the product with which they will be luring customers. This exchange is fine with me when the payoff is there. For example, I open Facebook to my life and in exchange I get an unparalleled connection with friends and I actually don’t even mind the hyper-targeted advertising.

But I’ve been using multiple location based social networks for more than a year now, primarily Gowalla and Foursquare, and the novelty of virtual gifts and badges have worn off and I’m looking for the real payoff. Participating in a LBSN isn’t any small feat; the effort it takes to have my device, remember to open it up, find the app, find the location or even create a NEW location, check into it, write a message, take a photo, leave tips…it’s a lot that’s being asked of me. Regardless of where the chips fall in all this, I’ll continue to use some form of LBSN just because I enjoy the element of diarizing, but the rest of America won’t unless some tangible rewards start showing up.

This is why Facebook’s newly announced Deals has thrown a wild card into my LBSN decision. The ease and targeting associated with Facebook ads has made creating focused online ad campaigns both cheaper and easier. If they bring this same sort of ease of use to Places and give local business a cheap easy way to participate in LBSN, I’m sold. And it will be a huge stumbling block for Foursquare and Gowalla.

First MTV has  people checking into STD clinics and now we’re checking into riots?: San Francisco World Series Rioters ‘Checking In’ to Riots on Foursquare

I believe there are two types of people in this world:

those who accept any  (Facebook) friend with the ability to push a friend request button, and those who say “heck no creep, I don’t know you.”

At the expense of my social media career, I’m in that later category. If I don’t know you, I don’t particularly want you skeezing around my friends, photos and interests. That’s just me. I’m not paranoid, I’ve just had lurkers before and there will be more. But I find myself questioning this philosophy a bit when it comes to considering: what if your association with one another isn’t sharing personal association, but sharing taste. Effectively your footpath becomes a reccomendation stream.

Enter userslike.me, where you can type in your  (Gowalla) name and find users checking in at several of the same spots as you; ideally people who likely share the same tastes. Now this service is likely to pull up a lot of your existing friends you hang out with, but you also might stumble across a few discoveries. To stalk.

Information is nothing without context and digestion. That’s why I like Where Do You Go (a startup I learned about when they presented at a New York startup event I attended), which is a free  (Foursquare) heat map generator that lets you see the areas you frequent. Unfortunately for me this heat map about confirms what I already knew…I spend a lot of time downtown at bars.

I drank it and ate it in NY with (Whrrl)