Brightkite is the next location based social network that I want to talk about this week. It is similar to Foursquare as a location based social network, and has a lot of the same features.

It is one of the bigger names in location based social networking, however, since I use other services, such as Foursquare, Yelp, and Like List (check tomorrow’s post) I have not really used Brightkite all that often, except for posting blog entries.

I sort of find their service redundant when using similar social networks that are larger than them.  The challenge is that Foursquare and Brightkite are two sides of the same coin. However, they still have hundreds of thousands of visitors coming to their site every month. They might find a niche to fit into among the rash of new sites like this, so do not discount them.

Here is what they do offer. They allow you to post what you are doing, so your friends can stay in contact with you and join when you are out and about in the area. This works through a system Brightkite calls placestreaming, which is people telling their Brightkite network where they are all the time, so it looks like a stream of places that they have been to recently.

The only feature that I found that separates them from Foursquare and Yelp is that they do allow photo uploads to share with your friends when you around town. This is cool, because you can show them what you are doing, and not just give them a text description.

In the end, I believe that Brightkite might find a niche that will probably help them survive. Since I do not know what that niche is I have not been as active on Brightkite, because I see other sites that are equally as strong and more relevant to me right now in location based social networking.