It seems like services that bring people from vast geographic distances (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) have a longer life than services the geo-limit the audience. If you're in NYC, SF, or LA, geo-limited services work due to density, but you the threshold seems to dive after a couple of cities down the list. Color was the ultimate example for me on something that was so geo-limited that I couldn't imagine it working.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Space_Flight_Center
I hope with that username this is a parody account because that line is by far one of the most ignorant, prejudice lines for HN.
I have a friend who is a commercial poultry farmer in rural Mississippi. He can turn on his chicken house feeders from anywhere in the world with a smart phone app. Some of the coolest technology being built is farm-related. People, no matter where they live, just want technology that makes their lives better in some way.
But they are different than the people who just want technology and see it as its own end.
Those people exist everywhere including the non-costal states. Long winters clear a lot of time for technology exploration.
Hyperbole aside, I thought foursquare was an excellent idea - and if more businesses around me used it, I"d probably still be using it myself. (Reading the article, it seems that if you live in NYC or SF it's a lot more useful than it's been to me.)
As it is, I think the last time I even looked at it was nearly six months ago.