Once again the good folks of Brightkite have missed the boat with their latest effort: Check.in.

The mobile site (not an app) gives a user the ability to simultaneously check in to up to three services: Brightkite, Foursquare and Gowalla.

It's a mobile app versus device app

It’s not all bad, they did bring a much needed search function to Gowalla, but the flow is a tad labored. It feels like there is an extra step.

Gowalla doesn't have search yet, so this is an advantage

It might not be fair to judge yet because it’s just a beta, but I couldn’t give a mayorship at Chuck E. Cheese. This is what I do.The fun of checking in is the PCP. That’s the post checkin page, not a hallucinogen. The PCP gives you tips, tells you if you’ve found an item, scored points, joined a society or become the mayor of a location. Brightkite has always been a slot machine without a jackpot.

This "are you sure" step is weird.

The following URLs Weren’t Available?

• Friendster2.com
• No.fun
• Despera.te

Hooray! Wait, that's it?

The Point of Checkins

Brightkite. Listen. You don’t get it. We checkin not only to tell our friends where we are, but to see what is happening at places and to see what happens next. You do a great job of showing people what is happening with your pictures feature, but you do not give people incentives, particularly with this app. No mayor? No items? That’s just plain lame and even if you intend to add the PCP later, you have done yourselves a disservice but releasing this beta without them. I’m calling callcheck.in http://dont.get.it.

In summary in an effort to save people time, Brightkite is actually creating a fun vaccuum. I would not waste your time with Check.in.

What do you think?