We’ve mentioned mobile and location-based social networking on this blog a few times before, and with good reason. It’s starting to get exciting.

It reminds me of the early days of Twitter, when a few people experimented deeply and more people didn’t quite see the point. Clue: there is no point; there are many points.

Mashable lists a few apps now available for Foursquare. Two of them are particularly interesting.

Yipit looks at the places you regularly check in, and keeps an eye out for specials. It’s not a new idea – I heard of similar ideas at a mobile commerce conference in 2001 – but it’s the first time it’s actually being done somewhere (in this case, New York only).

It’s a fantastic tool to build customer loyalty, and the technology does the heavy lifting for both the business and the customer. The customer doesn’t have to look for specials, and the business doesn’t have to look for the customer.

Last Night’s Check-ins offers a fascinating take on the future of history. It’s a very simple idea – it creates a diary for you based on your previous check-ins. When you write your autobiography, wouldn’t it be great to have resources like Foursquare so you can check exactly when you were at a certain place (if you hadn’t already tweeted it, taken a photo or written a blog about it!)

What are some more possibilities of Foursquare and its close cousin Gowalla? And what features will make one stand above the rest? And… whatever happened to Google Latitude?

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