<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Gigaom]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://gigaom.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Carmel DeAmicis]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[http://search.gigaom.com/author/carmeldee88/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Rumored Twitter-Foursquare partnership shows Yik Yak is a threat]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>Twitter is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-and-foursquare-partnership-in-2015-2014-12" target="_blank">reportedly teaming up with Foursquare</a> to power location-based tweets, according to Business Insider.  Location features are key to Twitter&#8217;s product roadmap, because the company believes such contextual information will make the service more useful for people.</p>
<p>But there&#8217;s lots of product changes that would make Twitter more useful to people, particularly new user onboarding tools. So why is Twitter focusing on location-based tweeting, arguably a departure from its core service, now?</p>
<p>It may have to do with new competitor Yik Yak. <a href="https://gigaom.com/2014/10/12/the-dark-horse-rises-could-yik-yak-be-the-real-winner-among-anonymity-apps/" target="_blank">Yik Yak spread virally through colleges</a> with a product that&#8217;s similar to Twitter, except your feed is composed of posts from people near your location. The app <a href="https://gigaom.com/2014/10/12/the-dark-horse-rises-could-yik-yak-be-the-real-winner-among-anonymity-apps/" target="_blank">has had a stunning rise</a> through the charts, and just raised $62 million in new funding from Sequoia (the main backer of WhatsApp). Although it&#8217;s frequently grouped in with the Secrets and Whispers of the world, <a href="https://gigaom.com/2014/10/12/the-dark-horse-rises-could-yik-yak-be-the-real-winner-among-anonymity-apps/" target="_blank">Yik Yak sees Twitter</a> as its big competitor. With Twitter now taking geolocation so seriously, it appears the feeling is mutual.</p>
<p>BI didn&#8217;t get the scoop on what, exactly, the Foursquare-enabled Twitter feature would look like, but sources told the publication we could see it as early as the first quarter of 2015.</p>
<p>We can look to <a href="https://gigaom.com/2014/11/12/twitter-teases-a-bunch-of-new-product-features-including-new-apps-and-algorithmic-filters/" target="_blank">Twitter&#8217;s recent Analyst Call</a> for some idea. During that time, Twitter showcased a wide array of preview products &#8212; ones it was planning but hadn&#8217;t finished building. Location-based tweet organization was one such feature.</p>
<p>In the slides Twitter showed, people could navigate to micro tweet areas, seeing all the tweets coming out of, say, Grand Central Terminal or Olive Garden, Times Square. Yik Yak&#8217;s Peek Anywhere tool is similar, although it&#8217;s based on pin dropping, as you can see below:</p>
<div id="attachment_888445" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 804px"><a href="https://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/screen-shot-2014-11-12-at-10-34-33-am.png"><img  src="https://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/screen-shot-2014-11-12-at-10-34-33-am.png?w=804&#038;h=485" alt="Twitter's location curated timelines" width="804" height="485" data-attribution-source="http://www.media-server.com/m/p/2vkkeeov" data-attribution="Twitter" class=" aligncenter" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Twitter&#8217;s location curated timelines</p></div>
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<div id="attachment_891363" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 804px"><a href="https://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/screen-shot-2014-11-24-at-11-31-41-am.png"><img  src="https://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/screen-shot-2014-11-24-at-11-31-41-am.png?w=804&#038;h=423" alt="Screenshots of Yik Yak's location based post tool" width="804" height="423" data-attribution-source="http://www.yikyakapp.com" data-attribution="Yik Yak" class=" aligncenter" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Screenshots of Yik Yak&#8217;s location based post tool</p></div>
<p>It was hard to tell from the Analyst Call, where a ton of product previews were dumped, how much Twitter was prioritizing this feature. But if it&#8217;s working alongside Foursquare to introduce it as early as January &#8211; March 2015, it&#8217;s clear this matters. It will be one of the biggest changes to Twitter&#8217;s product since its inception. And if users adopt it, it could pose significant problems for Yik Yak.</p>
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