'Here I Am!' GPS Location Apps Have Limited Appeal

For Diane Bisgeier, marking her turf with her iPhone has become as regular as morning coffee. Bisgeier "checks in" at restaurants, cafés, and theaters around San Francisco using Gowalla, a popular iPhone app that lets people broadcast their locations, find friends, and compete to see who's shown up somewhere the most.

"I don't feel complete unless I check in" when I arrive, says Bisgeier, 41, who has also logged her location using iPhone apps from Gowalla competitors Foursquare and Yelp. By announcing her movements around town on Gowalla, Bisgeier, a marketing director for medical software maker Soar BioDynamics , says she's able to meet friends spontaneously and feel as if she "left [my] mark" on places. "It's because I'm hypersocial," she says. "That's why I love it."