A rapid convergence is taking place between the web and reality. The artificial division between the virtual and the real is starting to dissolve, as various applications and technologies combine to stitch together interfaces and activities that together dissolve the barriers between the web and our material world.

Augmented Reality is a vivid depiction of how this may manifest a few months from now, however in the present, services like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Google Buzz are helping to make it a reality. In contrast to AR, which I suspect most people still find a bit terrifying, the current batch of location based services have basic interfaces, usually connected to maps, which we're all relatively familiar with.

In fact there's something kind of seductive to using maps as an interface to this emerging convergent world where our location and surroundings are rich with information and social ties.

Is it an indication that we're lost and looking to find our way? Or the inverse, that we know where we are, and we wish everyone else to know as well?

The motivations for using social media and sharing one's location are not always as obvious as they may seem. Critics often slip into absolute terms when assessing how location based services can and will be used, however to fully understand their impact and potential, it is important to immerse oneself in the experience.

Let us therefore look at three location based services, each of which has its own characteristics, and features, yet all comprise a similar genre and competitive space.

Foursquare is the service I've been using the longest, and has recently been getting a lot of the credit for advancing this particular genre. The idea is that your city becomes a large game board and that each location you land on gives you points, which you can compare to your friends and fellow players via leader boards. If you land or check-in from the same location often enough you can become the "Mayor" of that spot, giving you extra recognition and points in the game.

One of the business models being developed around location based social media is the connection between points or status within these systems and real world discounts or loyalty rewards from the vendors who's spots are frequent check-ins. Foursquare becomes a kind of broker or media outlet that connects businesses with their (potential) clients. As each of your friends check-in to an establishment they are broadcasting that fact and acting as a kind of mini-advertisement for that location. If the experience goes well they could return and rise to the position of mayor, a sort of micro-celebrity endorsement.

Social hierarchy is clearly one of the desired by-products of these games, as the points, badges, and titles all add up to create both incentives towards participation, but also means by which some users are afforded special treatment.

Emulating power structures within the real world, the ability to become mayor is not determined by the number of check-ins, but instead factors in the users overall influence. The more powerful you already are the easier it is for you to usurp other players and add to your Mayoral holdings. While the interface may not exist to map out this neo-feudal phenomena, it's only a matter of time before it happens, given the API Foursquare makes available.

Which is of course the danger of any game, that people will no doubt try to manipulate the system, and "game" the network by figuring out the logic and pushing it to its limits. On a basic level this occurs as people create locations that don't exist or that only they have access to. Other times it's just obsessive behavior that has people checking in at all times from anywhere they might be. Although neither of these are wrong per se, they just take the system to the extreme and potentially amplify influence that may not reflect reality.

Reality being the ironic rule of these games, that while they have a definitive virtual dynamic to the way in which the information is shared, the interface of the map, the central position of location, means that reality is the basis of the game itself.

Yet what I find about GoWalla that makes it both fun and interesting is the way in which this reality is augmented by virtual objects, that are traded, found, and dropped on the spots or places that you land on.

I started using GoWalla largely because FourSquare limits itself to particular urban environments, whereas GoWalla can work anywhere. When I was travelling this winter GoWalla was useful in helping me scout nearby locations whereas FourSquare was non-existent off the beaten path.

The other thing I enjoy about GoWalla is the lack of Mayors. FourSquare isn't even that old and the social hierarchy is already so rigid that I'll never be mayor in the locations I frequent most.

Instead GoWalla's game is based on the collection of virtual objects. As you go around you receive and find objects that you can collect or drop that add a virtual layer that help us conceive of an augmented reality. Think of it as a cross between virtual graffiti and recycling.

Yet even such a simple game around collecting virtual objects can be easily abused, and in so doing erode the integrity of the system. For example I've found in a number of spots, like my local Canadian Tire, the check-in point is far off in the parking lot because the person who created it was just driving around creating spots at random in the hopes of collecting more items.

While these juvenile characteristics may alienate people who are not interested in playing games, there is still considerable potential in these services as interfaces to parts of our urban environments that we might otherwise ignore.

This is why I'm finding Google Buzz to be far more interesting than Foursquare and GoWalla, in large part due to the transparency and utility of the service. Without any games, and integrated directly into Google Maps, Buzz appears to be a clear path between our current world of location based social media and the near future of augmented reality.

When Buzz was first announced it received a resoundingly negative response as in typical Google fashion the announcement/launch was neither clear nor expected. The option to join Buzz was confusing, and many people agreed without understanding what they were agreeing to. It was a new concept, especially to those unfamiliar with social media.

Now that the dust has settled, I think Buzz deserves a second look. Google deserves credit in general for thinking (relatively) long term, and allowing their products the time to develop and grow. It's wrong to dismiss their products upon launch, given Google's commitment to allow their products to be in the public even in pre-beta phase.

The primary thing I like about Buzz is that it is not necessarily based on your existing social network. Yes there is an aggregation element of Buzz that gathers all of your (and all of your friend's) social media together in your gmail account, however the mobile interface to Buzz is completely different.

Whether via an Android device or Google Maps Mobile, you can view the Buzz that is "nearby" whether as a list, or directly integrated into Google Maps. For example as you browse the map, you see little word balloons that if you click on reveal what people are saying. Sometimes it is random chatter, other times they are comments tied to a business or specific location, in which case they become integrated with Google's listing for that spot.

These entries are of course all set to public, you can't see people's private entries, but the logic of this system, like most social media, is to share your posts with the public at large. What I like about Buzz is the semi-randomness of the people I'm being exposed to. What we have in common is geography, but otherwise they are strangers, which I quite like, given that it increases the likelihood of learning something new.

For example I was in Mississauga earlier this week for a client meeting and before leaving looked at Buzz to see who was nearby and what were they saying. One person in particular who's buzzing I noticed, was Punit Soni, who is Lead Product Manager, Mobile Apps, at Google. He's one of the main people working on Buzz and happened to be only a few kms away from me at the time.

Granted these are the early days of this platform, but it demonstrated to me how different this platform is, how it more closely resembles the type of interactivity I've talked about for years, without the games. A nice combination of geographic intelligence, random connection, and yet the power of google's knowledge management practices that integrate all of this activity into their larger interfaces.

So if you're curious about understanding how the current convergence between location and social media is moving towards augmented reality, then I'd encourage you to start "playing" with Google Buzz. You can find me here.

It may give you a glimpse into the near future while also giving you a sense of what's around you right now.