If there’s one area that the check-in market, both location- and entertainment-based, needs to grow in to it’s the addition of intent-signaling. So I want to use the same network/app to say to the people I’ve connected with there that I’m planning to do something (attend a WordCamp for example) and then check-in when I’m there. Similarly I’d like to build a list of movies that I’d like to see that I can then bo back to and check-in or otherwise mark off that I’ve seen it.

Right now the functionality is too disperse to be truly useful, at least to me. Plancast, GetGlue, Gowalla…these are all good for what they are but they’re too limited, focusing on one are or the other. A good percentage of the Foursquare check-ins I see are from ostensible locations but they’re really events that people have newly created at that physical space.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t be able to check-in somewhere unless you’ve already said you intend to go there. That would defeat the purpose. But the check-in market needs to connect these disparate desires before I’m going to be fully satisfied with the options.