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Is the New Foursquare Too Much Like the Old Dodgeball for Google?

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ZiggyStardust
03/16/09

In reply to Is the New Foursquare Too Much Like the Old Dodgeball for Google?
Interesting how this is now off the Gawker site, hmmm.

I call 'shenanigans' on this one-- tis inaccurate.
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Lux Alptraum
03/16/09

In reply to Is the New Foursquare Too Much Like the Old Dodgeball for Google?
Aw, and to think I remember when Harry first moved to New York!
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lobstr
03/16/09

In reply to Is the New Foursquare Too Much Like the Old Dodgeball for Google?
I always hated the pricks who tried to pull those tiny tim moves ..
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BrianVan
03/16/09

In reply to Is the New Foursquare Too Much Like the Old Dodgeball for Google?
Owen, of "Dodgeball deserved to die" fame - are you still getting your rocks off on making death announcements for startups? Your narrative seems to make a lot of assumptions about how Dodgeball code might have been taken from Google. They're all probably wrong, too, and you present zero evidence that would hold up in court.

First off, you know Dens wrote Dodgeball while he was in grad school, right? It was his thesis project. Therefore he would be in a position to rewrite it on a new project without any espionage tactics. Second, Google can't possibly "own the code" in any sense other than having patents on the concept. It is unclear who might have any applicable patents, but I doubt any such patents exist. Obviously, if Twitter and Brightkite exist along with dozens of other mobile networking services, and there is no licensing situation, then I doubt Google has enforceable patents. Third, Foursquare is a web application and an iPhone application, neither of which would be proprietary to Dodgeball (which didn't have an iPhone-specific component, since development on the project was abandoned before the release of the iPhone platform). The SMS components of Foursquare are the only thing resembling Dodgeball.

But then again, the facts don't really matter, do they? You make money and pageviews saying (almost exclusively) discourteous things about tech entrepreneurs and their relatives/friends. It's a shame you haven't yet figured out how to monetize actual journalism.
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Phyllis Nefler
03/16/09

@BrianVan: bv;dr
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Martin May
03/16/09

In reply to Is the New Foursquare Too Much Like the Old Dodgeball for Google?
If that's really true (which I doubt, because the tech behind this stuff is relatively simple, it's the idea and UX that counts), Dennis and Naveen and more than welcome to use any of the Brightkite infrastructure/tech that they need to make this go away.

Come on Google, you can't be serious, right?

Martin

brightkite.com
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Phyllis Nefler
03/16/09

@Martin May: Aw, this is the feelest-good (feel-goodest?) Gawker comment I have ever read. Here's hoping it's like Kryptonite to Owen!
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hamburgerhotdog
03/16/09

In reply to Is the New Foursquare Too Much Like the Old Dodgeball for Google?
Is the whole point of being "cool" in NYC finding stuff other people don't know about and keeping it that way so they don't ruin it for you?
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parenthetical
03/16/09

@hamburgerhotdog: Yes. Does that make you feel left out?
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hamburgerhotdog
03/16/09

@parenthetical: If only you knew where I was right now you'd be green with envy! If only there was a service to broadcast such a thing!
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macbeach
03/16/09

In reply to Is the New Foursquare Too Much Like the Old Dodgeball for Google?
Who are the people in those pictures?

I don't trust them.
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BadUncle
03/16/09

In reply to Is the New Foursquare Too Much Like the Old Dodgeball for Google?
I miss Dodgeball. My phone sits there silently, without recording the numerous mentbars, clubs and airports through which friends have been passing, indicting me for sloth with every text chime.
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BadUncle
03/16/09

@BadUncle: "numerous bars." Mento bars, on the other hand, are places I still frequent.
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blix
03/16/09

@BadUncle: In my youth I used to close bars. Now I just open them.
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BadUncle
03/16/09

@blix: Yeah. To hell with the 6 PM happy hour. It's the 7 AM pour that gets me out of bed.
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TedSez
03/16/09

In reply to Is the New Foursquare Too Much Like the Old Dodgeball for Google?
Four square itself is a game that involves strategy as much as physical agility, and I killed at it when I was a kid. Bring that back, and you've got something.
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BadUncle
03/16/09

@TedSez: In college, we played a consecutive square game with a tennis ball, called La Balla. It was a sublime accompaniment to drugs and alcohol.
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blix
03/16/09

@TedSez: It's not a game until somebody cries. We used to play for hours.
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Botswana Meat Commission FC
03/16/09

@TedSez:

It actually took me until about the fourth paragraph to figure out he wasn't talking about actual blacktop playground foursquare.
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