Foursquare is about visiting places; Schemer is about doing things

Schemer.com screenshot

The peerless Trey Ratcliff was kind enough to offer invites to Schemer, a new Google service, and I was lucky enough to win one. Thanks, +Trey!

Jennifer Van Grove emphasized Schemer’s similarities to Foursquare in her VentureBeat article, but I see Schemer as more of a location-sensitive bucket list.

Foursquare is about visiting places; Schemer is about doing things.

Ignoring the home dashboard, Schemer’s biggest attraction is its “Find Stuff To Do” page. Here, you’ll find a list of projects (“schemes”). All of these projects were made by (or marked by) people in your Google+ Circles, or who live or work near you. It’s not creepy; it doesn’t suggest that you do the same things as your next-door neighbors. But if you live in Seattle, most of the projects listed for you will be either based in Seattle or not location-specific (e.g., “Knit a sweater”).

So, you can create a project (“Make my grandmother’s fudge cheesecake recipe”), or mark an existing one as “I want to do it” or “Already done it.”

You can also leave comments on projects (sorry, “schemes”), and this is one of the site’s most exciting features. If it can collate advice from people who’ve already done something, it could be a powerful way to help people achieve their goals.

There’s already an Android app available, with an iPhone app “coming soon.” I have no Android phone, so I can’t comment on that.

So, the big question: Is Schemer worth using? As a bucket list, yes. This is a fine way of tracking larger concrete life goals.

If you’d like an invite to Schemer, leave a comment and I’ll give ’em out as long as I’ve got ’em.