This week has been all about trying new things - www.instapaper.com, www.audioboo.fm, www.posterous.com and www.formspring.me, among others. I've also signed up for www.gowalla.com today.

I've been using www.foursquare.com for a few weeks now. I love the idea, but I've had problems with the iPhone app - it's been intermittently slow, buggy or failed to pick up on connections at all. Hopefully the new update will fix that, but I'm also giving Gowalla a try.

I'm particularly liking the look of the items feature at the moment, though admittedly I haven't tried it out properly yet. Basically, it's a primitive virtual geocaching system. Every time you check in somewhere you have a percentage chance to receive an item. You can swap items for the ability to do certain things - mostly to do with creating new locations, as far as I can see. And people visiting those locations later on have a chance of picking up those items and passing them on.

I don't imagine I'll be using both Foursquare and Gowalla in the long term unless I can find a way to link the services so I only need to check in once. One check-in is worthwhile; two is probably more effort than I'll spend. But I'll be trying them both out for a little while - will report back when a clear favourite emerges.

(Incidentally, this is also another Posterous test post, to see how linking and tagging work...)