This connection will put two extremely powerful technologies together: the social networking maelstrom of Facebook and the participatory culture insights of SCVNGR. Google’s offering connects location based social gaming in a way that generates a sort of casual ARG (Alternate Reality Game) for users. Enabling them to earn points, generate reputation, and involve friends, and discover new things all from their mobile phones.
The particularly stunning element of SCVNGR, which will probably cause it to catch fire when it reaches enough people, is their concept of challenge stories. People who have connected through Facebook Places with this app will find themselves working against and with one another to achieve particular goals, driven into narratives, and asked to deliver daily or weekly challenges. Most of these will take advantage of the already powerful multimedia features in mobile devices.
Marshall Kirkpatrick explains to us the reason why Google believes they will dominate in this market in his ReadWriteWeb article,
Priebatsch believes that these dynamics will lead to more interesting content being pushed from SCVNGR to Facebook than competitors offer with mere “I was here” check-ins. The Facebook Places API will allow any trusted party to push multi-media payloads to user’s walls, but Priebatsch says his company can go beyond pictures. When outside publishers push content that gets a higher level of reader engagement, they are rewarded with increased visibility in peoples’ Newsfeeds for future published content.
Facebook’s reach and Google’s oomph will most likely combine to generate a vivid social experience.
With such a brilliant interface and purpose driving SCVNGR users to compete, cooperate, explore, and thrive in the social game, it will continue to also draw in corporate and businesses interests to tap into the eyeball stream as well. And like most location-based offerings now, it will tend to bring customers to their brick-and-mortar stores and their local events, giving them a whole new dimension for experience marketing.
We may soon be seeing Facebook posts extolling things like, “Just watched the @SiliconAngle presentation on social gaming with my friend, Kit! SCVNGR +5 points!”
The synergy between these products should prove extremely compelling.
