14 DAY TRIAL // Foursquare and Google aren't exactly allies, the startup's founders aren't too fond of the big company, but the two are partnering for this year's Google I/O, starting later today, for NFC-powered check-ins.
Throughout the conference center, attendants will discover Foursquare posters with an embedded near filed communications (NFC) chip enabling them to check into the different sessions or venues via their NFC-enabled devices.
"Google I/O is the big annual developer conference in California. This year, Google worked with us to put NFC check-in points all over the convention center," Foursquare announced.
"Starting tomorrow, just tap your NFC-enabled phone (most newer Android devices have it) against the poster, it’ll check you in with foursquare, and you’ll get a special Google I/O badge," it explained.
The idea is simple and obvious, NFC holds a lot of promise in different areas and one of them is check-ins.
NFC enables devices to communicate or get information by simply getting them close enough to each other. One of the major applications of this technology, if it takes off, is as a way of getting information from a physical object to a mobile device, for example payment data, or additional info or links from a poster or sticker.
Foursquare has already been testing NFC check-ins for a while now, but the Google I/O conference will likely be the biggest live test for the technology to date.
The one big problem NFC has, as is the case with all new technologies, is low adoption. There are few devices with NFC chips now, only a few high-end Android phones the most popular of which is Google's own Nexus S.
That said, there's probably no better place to test NFC check-ins than at the Google I/O developers conference, a place filled with tech savvy people which are Google fans or at least heavy users.