It all started with a check-in: the vision for #4sq3 and beyond

Mar 08th

Note: foursquare 3.0 for Android and iPhone are now live in their respective app stores. Also, this is a really long post, but we have a lot to say… if you want to just look at what foursquare 3.0 looks like, keep scrolling.

It was almost exactly two years today that Naveen and I flipped the switch on foursquare, jumped on a plane to Austin and introduced the folks at SXSW 2009 to our idea of “turning life into a game.” We’ve told the story a number of times, but we really had no idea whether people would dig the “check-ins + game mechanics” model or laugh us out of Texas. As it turned out, a lot of people loved it. By the time we got back to NYC, we had 5,000 users. We started a company, raised a round of funding and hired a bunch of the smartest people we could find.

Last year, we came back to Austin with a slightly bigger team (12 of us!) and more confidence in our ideas. Not only were people digging the “life as a game” idea, but we were seeing foursquare badges actually driving people to do things (“Gym Rat” badge, anyone?), we saw mayorships encouraging loyalty at coffee shops and restaurants, and merchants starting to reward people for their check-ins (“free coffee for the Mayor!”). It wasn’t hard to see how the social utility of check-ins, tips, and to-dos were starting to change the way people experienced both familiar neighborhoods and new cities. We launched “Trending” at SXSW 2010 – a way to see where a critical mass of people were checked in – and watched as people at SXSW used it as a “sixth sense” to know when it was time to switch parties and as a way to choose which panels to gravitate towards. We left Austin last year with just under 500,000 users.

Now it’s a year later and almost 40 of us (!) are about to head down to Austin for SXSW 2011. Our team has grown to just over 50 people, we’re closing in on 7.5 million users, and we saw almost 500,000,000 check-ins (half a billion!!!) in the last year. And while the numbers are great, this was a challenging year for us: scaling infrastructure from 100,000 to 7,500,000 users is hard; growing a company from 5 to 50 people is hard. And that’s why we didn’t expand the foursquare experience as much as we hoped to… a lot of people still look at us as a “game built on check-ins,” while we had dreams of being something much bigger.

We started foursquare with the idea of “making cities easier to use,” focusing on check-ins as the atomic unit of measuring interest in a place. From our work on dodgeball (an early location-based project), we knew that while check-ins were interesting in the present tense (“Hey, Alex is at Ace Bar!”) they were most interesting when viewed in aggregate, as a history of the places you’ve been and people you’ve overlapped with. The world becomes so much more fun, social, and interesting when you have that context. We’ve long wanted to build those things that can augment your experience of the real world – software that introduces you to new places and new experiences – and with the launch of foursquare 3.0 we’re getting a little closer to that vision.

One of the big ideas kicking around foursquare HQ these last few months has been the idea of “every check-in counts.” Regardless of whether you’re checking into the same ol’ coffee shop or some far-away beach, we want every check-in to add value to every foursquare user. With that in mind, let me walk you though some of the new things you’ll find in our new Android and iPhone versions (both launch later tonight!) in the context of the way we’ve been thinking about the evolution of the company and the product.

Discovery

For many, foursquare has been a great way to find out about the places your friends frequent (through check-ins) and learn about specific experiences to seek out (through tips and to-dos). For years we’ve wanted to build a recommendation engine for the real world by turning all the check-ins and tips we’ve seen from you, your friends, and the larger foursquare community into personalized recommendations.

You’ll see our first pass at this in foursquare 3.0′s new “Explore” tab. The idea is pretty simple: tell us what you’re looking for and we’ll help you find something nearby. The suggestions are based on a little bit of everything – the places you’ve been, the places your friends have visited, your loyalty to your favorite places, the categories and types of places you gravitate towards, what’s popular with other users, the day of the week, places with great tips, the time of day, and so on. We’ll even tell you why we think you should visit a certain place (e.g. popular with friends, similar to your favorite spots). You’ll find it’s helpful for general things like “food”, “coffee”, “nightlife” (we built in quick access to these searches) and you’ll be surprised by what you get when searching for really specific things, like “80s music,” “fireplaces,” “pancakes,” “bratwurst,” and “romantic.” The more random you get, the more interesting the results get (though be patient with this first release… sometimes we can’t find every random thing).

And outside of the “Explore” tab, you’ll see some of this thinking starting to surface on the “Me” tab as well. As we started to tinker with our recommendations algorithms, we started to see “expertise” starting to emerge from the data – we’re seeing friends that have been to every karaoke place within 10 miles or tried every burger in Los Angeles. The new “Me” tab surfaces some of this, letting you seek guidance from your friends on the categories and places they explore most.

Now, with over half a billion data points, and with every additional check-in and every tip, foursquare gets a little smarter for you, your friends, and the rest of the community. We’re already finding this can be just as helpful for finding a brunch spot in your neighborhood as it can be for helping you navigate a new city for the first time.

Encouragement

The very first version of foursquare (January 2009) was built as a “leaderboard for Saturday night” – a way to motivate your friends to go out and explore the real world and a means to visualize your adventurousness. Points for check-ins, badges for accomplishments, and a leaderboard to compare the results with your friends all fed into this idea. At foursquare, we’re big believers in the power of software to encourage and motivate behavior, and while our first stab at a leaderboard hinted at some of the possibilities, it never got the love it deserved.

Today’s major overhaul to the leaderboard is a big step in the evolution of that original idea. You’ll see that we’ve replaced our old leaderboard (and its simple points system and Sunday night reset) with a sliding 7-day barometer of you and your friends. Check-ins now trigger points for dozens of different types of actions – everything from discovering new places, trying new types of restaurants, visiting new cities, getting groups together, hanging out with old friends, and a few things you might not expect.

From the early days, we’ve heard stories of foursquare’s game mechanics being a subtle motivator for trying a new restaurant or venturing a little further away from your local haunts. We’re excited to see how some of the new elements we’ve added will encourage people to actively explore the world around them.

Loyalty

Over the past two years, many of you watched as we experimented with local merchants all over the world, working with them to build tools that redefine customer loyalty. What started with a disagreement over who spent more time at our neighborhood coffee shop (hence, the “Mayor”), quickly evolved into local merchants rewarding foursquare Mayors with special treatment (discounts and freebies, the power to cut the line, and even ordering off a special menu). As foursquare has grown, though, it’s become harder to both hold down Mayorships and win back the ones you’ve lost. We’ve long wanted to move beyond that and give merchants more ways to reward loyal customers. So, later this week, we’re rolling out six new types of foursquare Specials for merchants. Business will now be able to offer Specials to swarms, groups of friends, regulars, newbies, Mayors, or simply to everyone. And, on the Places screen in the app, you’ll now see a list of all the Specials nearby, so it’s easier to find places that reward foursquare users. With over a quarter million businesses verified on foursquare, these new tools will mean more rewards for users everywhere in the world.

Anyway, this post was a very long way of saying that we’ve got really ambitious plans for the rest of the year and that we’re excited to let you play with three big new pieces of the master plan. It feels great to be making progress on things we’ve wanted to build for years and it’s even more exciting to have you all along for the ride. Here’s to a great rest of the year, and we look forward to seeing a bunch of you in Austin!

- @dens and the rest of team foursquare

P.S. BlackBerry users, we’ll have a new build for you this week as well, but alas, not yet with some of this foursquare 3.0 goodness. The good news is that this latest build has all the pieces in place for us to move a little quicker, so stay tuned!

P.P.S. Lots of you have been asking in the comments about Symbian and WP7. We’re working hard to make sure that foursquare 3.0 is available on all platforms, and will have updates as soon as we can.

Posted in Foursquare

248 Comments

  • http://twitter.com/LaRinkRVA Lauren Rinker

    When will version 3.0 be available for Blackberry?

  • http://twitter.com/LaRinkRVA Lauren Rinker

    When will version 3.0 be available for Blackberry?

  • Christiaan Hendriksen

    when will blackberry get 3.0?

  • Christiaan Hendriksen

    when will blackberry get 3.0?

  • Christiaan Hendriksen

    when will blackberry get 3.0?

  • http://twitter.com/DenisLavrinenko Денис Лавриненко

    Yeah, baby!

  • http://twitter.com/DenisLavrinenko Денис Лавриненко

    Yeah, baby!

  • http://twitter.com/interimattack John Pearce

    Symbian…?

  • http://twitter.com/interimattack John Pearce

    Symbian…?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XPEIP47H7FC6LU4R54JZTGME5E pete a

    awesome totally awesome! alright foursquare!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XPEIP47H7FC6LU4R54JZTGME5E pete a

    awesome totally awesome! alright foursquare!

  • Adamhdavis

    no love for blackberry users…

  • Adamhdavis

    no love for blackberry users…

  • http://www.facebook.com/CrazyKinux David Perry

    Looking forward to trying that out on my Curve… and to the day that we Blackberry users won’t have to wait those extra days! :p

  • http://www.facebook.com/CrazyKinux David Perry

    Looking forward to trying that out on my Curve… and to the day that we Blackberry users won’t have to wait those extra days! :p

  • http://www.facebook.com/CrazyKinux David Perry

    Looking forward to trying that out on my Curve… and to the day that we Blackberry users won’t have to wait those extra days! :p

  • http://www.facebook.com/CrazyKinux David Perry

    Looking forward to trying that out on my Curve… and to the day that we Blackberry users won’t have to wait those extra days! :p

  • http://www.facebook.com/CrazyKinux David Perry

    Looking forward to trying that out on my Curve… and to the day that we Blackberry users won’t have to wait those extra days! :p

  • http://www.facebook.com/CrazyKinux David Perry

    Looking forward to trying that out on my Curve… and to the day that we Blackberry users won’t have to wait those extra days! :p

  • http://www.facebook.com/CrazyKinux David Perry

    Looking forward to trying that out on my Curve… and to the day that we Blackberry users won’t have to wait those extra days! :p

  • http://www.facebook.com/CrazyKinux David Perry

    Looking forward to trying that out on my Curve… and to the day that we Blackberry users won’t have to wait those extra days! :p

  • http://www.facebook.com/CrazyKinux David Perry

    Looking forward to trying that out on my Curve… and to the day that we Blackberry users won’t have to wait those extra days! :p

  • http://www.facebook.com/CrazyKinux David Perry

    Looking forward to trying that out on my Curve… and to the day that we Blackberry users won’t have to wait those extra days! :p

  • Pearcy

    When can we expect a Symbian version?

  • Pearcy

    When can we expect a Symbian version?

  • Pearcy

    When can we expect a Symbian version?

  • Pearcy

    When can we expect a Symbian version?

  • Pearcy

    When can we expect a Symbian version?

  • Amaury

    Sounds good

  • Amaury

    Sounds good

  • Amaury

    Sounds good

  • Amaury

    Sounds good

  • Amaury

    Sounds good

  • http://twitter.com/mmly emily munroe

    This new set up is sick!

  • Ricardomprodrigues

    Windows Phone 7 ??

  • http://www.intrnr.com/ Greg Paradee

    Awesome, such an update with great new features just in time for SXSW.

  • http://www.facebook.com/GVMike Mike Rash

    You don’t read well, do you?

  • http://www.facebook.com/GVMike Mike Rash

    You don’t read well, do you?

  • http://www.facebook.com/GVMike Mike Rash

    You don’t read well, do you?

  • http://twitter.com/shawna85 Shawna Jackson

    i hate that we can’t get mayorships or see specials if we’re using the mobile site! it is not fair.

  • http://twitter.com/shawna85 Shawna Jackson

    i hate that we can’t get mayorships or see specials if we’re using the mobile site! it is not fair.

  • http://twitter.com/shawna85 Shawna Jackson

    i hate that we can’t get mayorships or see specials if we’re using the mobile site! it is not fair.

  • Agambeureugoh

    nice on. but I’m using symbian mobile phone

  • Agambeureugoh

    nice on. but I’m using symbian mobile phone

  • Anonymous

    So excited! I wish more businesses used and encouraged foursquare over here.

  • Ralph

    Good work!
    From 12designer.com, we know how hard is to get bigger and have new ideas. Well done and keep it going! (hey, and if somebody comes by our office, Nespresso is ready from him/her!)

    Ralph (12designer.com’s Mayor, Berlin, Germany)

  • http://www.facebook.com/art.mitchell1 Art Mitchell

    How about making Badge hints a bit more descriptive!

  • http://twitter.com/PJCocu Paulus Cocu, CISSP

    Windows Mobile ?

  • http://twitter.com/DonProblema Alejandro Fernandez

    No love for Windows Mobile 6 non touchscreen users T_T

  • http://twitter.com/dr_heiner Mark Heiner

    looking forward to the bb upgrade. thanks.

  • http://www.wadehammes.com wadehammes

    Congratulations guys!

  • Anonymous

    P.S. Blackberry users, we’ll have a new build for you this week as well, but alas, not yet with some of this foursquare 3.0 goodness. The good news is that this latest build has all the pieces in place for us to move a little quicker, so stay tuned!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=503611657 Sherry Bednar-Padgett

    re Blackberry – please bring back history and adding a venue kthx

  • Funnywife

    sweet!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000247650676 Jean François Riemer

    yes… what about symbian (S60 as well as S^3)?

  • http://www.facebook.com/mattkorybski Matthew Korybski

    Do people still use blackberries? Anyway I’m looking forward to checking this out on my iPhone!!!!

  • BLAHBLAHBLAH

    are we windows phone users ever going to get an update :( ive been using facebook places cuz the wp7 foursquare app needs an update… and bad….

  • Anonymous

    I really like the idea of the new specials categories for merchants. Thanks for this! Also, I think the Explore function has great potential, too. I’m looking forward to telling some of my favorite merchants about these new features.

  • Christiaan

    no 3.0 features = no love for blackberry users

  • Anonymous

    Are you going to bring Fjord in again to update the WP7 & Symbian apps or are you just going to let them rot? http://gigaom.com/2010/11/15/microsoft-opened-its-wallet-to-build-wp7-app-success/

  • Epoconnor

    I have been using 4SQ for 8 months now. At first it was about Mayorships, then about Badges, but then my interested waned. I realize now, I need more deals to be engaged again. Where are the deals?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=727978973 Rob Dusa

    Agreed. Even though I’m running BB OS6 with webkit, it’s a PITA to have to add a venue using the browser.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=727978973 Rob Dusa

    Agreed. Even though I’m running BB OS6 with webkit, it’s a PITA to have to add a venue using the browser.

  • http://www.zacharyadamcohen.com/ Zachary Adam Cohen

    that was a lovely blog post, wish you lots of luck with the new release, and most of all appreciate the honest regarding those things you’ve wanted to do but haven’t quite been able to. keep working, you are almost there

  • Anonymous

    congrats guys!

  • http://www.808Girl.com/ 808 Girl Media

    Yeah, where’s the love for BlackBerry users? The latest update took AWAY a lot of features that were the best parts of the app, even if it DID fix some of the worst features. Boo.

  • http://twitter.com/ENFD240 Andrew

    i’d just be happy if all my sms check ins actually linked to the venue i’m checking in to

  • http://twitter.com/JimHarley Jim Harley

    What about Nokia and a Symbian version?

  • http://www.facebook.com/yankeepride Steve Welgoss

    Still need better, faster admins, who consolidate duplicate listings, update lazy/incorrect names/addresses, and get rid of useless clutter such as people’s homes and made-up virtual locations.

  • http://www.zacharyadamcohen.com/ Zachary Adam Cohen

    No one cares about blackberrys. Get a real phone.

  • The Monarch

    Blackberry sucks?

  • http://twitter.com/LaRinkRVA Lauren Rinker

    “This week” for BB isn’t as specific as “later tonight” for iphone and android users. Be nice.

  • http://twitter.com/russ_dean Russell Dean Roering

    Great to see you guys building it out. Keep up the great work everyone, I love Foursquare on my Android!

  • http://twitter.com/vinzv vinzv

    Oh yes – and what about my 10-year-old sewing machine?

  • Bdavid007

    poor of us, blackberry users are abandonned, we stil don’t have photos while check-in !!!
    i don’t know why the blackberry app comes after the iphone …

  • The Monarch

    Literacy it is such a good thing! :D

  • Llee_mail

    bb users always treated like second class citizens

  • John (SU1)

    I can hardly wait!!

  • L’ance

    what about windows 7 phone… :(

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=28119712 Aret Mazmanyan

    Any word on a Windows 7 update to 3.0? :D

  • Anonymous

    Same here.

  • Anonymous

    Same here.

  • Anonymous

    “some”

  • http://twitter.com/rachelsterne Rachel Sterne

    Congrats on the launch @dens @naveen and Team @Foursquare!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JRFG7TAOCNH7OGBCDRHGNGFR4A Goko S

    blackberry users please do not destroy this article. blackberry suck’s and you know that

  • http://twitter.com/gbodhi Gnome Bodhi

    I AM PSYCHED. This looks excellent. 4SQ needed to evolve, I’m really looking forward to the enhanced capabilities!

  • http://twitter.com/ELFENIX3000 Ray Wayne

    And symbian? I love mi N8 but i’m really thinking buy a iphone just for foursquare app

  • Anonymous

    The evolution of foursquare is awesome. Glad to see the priority on highlighting exploration and specials. Both will drive business adoption!

  • RJS3566

    What about an igoogle app/gadget for those of us with netbooks?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=211201975 Shelby DeNike

    Is there going to be new API calls to allow one to check total points over the last X days or since X date?

  • http://www.walterelly.com Walter Elly

    Congratulations! This looks to be a great step on the path towards the “master plan” and a fantastic expansion of the core foursquare experience! I’m also happy to see the points and leaderboard getting some love- one of my favorite features of foursquare becoming even more useful and fun! See ya at SXSW!

  • http://www.walterelly.com Walter Elly

    Congratulations! This looks to be a great step on the path towards the “master plan” and a fantastic expansion of the core foursquare experience! I’m also happy to see the points and leaderboard getting some love- one of my favorite features of foursquare becoming even more useful and fun! See ya at SXSW!

  • http://www.walterelly.com Walter Elly

    Congratulations! This looks to be a great step on the path towards the “master plan” and a fantastic expansion of the core foursquare experience! I’m also happy to see the points and leaderboard getting some love- one of my favorite features of foursquare becoming even more useful and fun! See ya at SXSW!

  • http://www.walterelly.com Walter Elly

    Congratulations! This looks to be a great step on the path towards the “master plan” and a fantastic expansion of the core foursquare experience! I’m also happy to see the points and leaderboard getting some love- one of my favorite features of foursquare becoming even more useful and fun! See ya at SXSW!

  • http://twitter.com/JonWorrel Jon Worrel

    Please tell me this release natively supports Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets!

    It would be a huge advantage over Gowalla 3.0, which prompts me to force-quit on startup.

  • SAMs IMac

    Great! Can’t wait to try it on my iPhone!

  • http://pallino1021.wordpress.com/ Deanna

    Innovation continues! For foursquare “every check-in counts” means building on collective suggestions and emotional connections with friends. A great place to start!

  • Jared

    Please add UPC capability for businesses offering Specials

  • Elise Payton

    The blackberry app sucks right now. I downloaded the newest version a week or two ago. Now i have no way of seeing how close I am to becoming a mayor, no history, etc. I’m disappointed. :-( Booo!

  • Kirk0625

    what about webos users? Any word on the update for us?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1374180007 ‘Ricky Dykeman

    I agree with trying to get rid of all the duplicate listings, but the other stuff doesn’t effect you or anyone else

  • http://conversaciones.nokia.com JCAnez

    YES! what about Symbian? not only Symbian^3 or S60 v3….I’m also talking about S40 users that represent the vast majority of the world’s mobile users….

  • http://www.waynejohn.com/ Wayne John

    Any updates on enhancements to the API?

  • http://conversaciones.nokia.com JCAnez

    Same here too

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1374180007 ‘Ricky Dykeman

    Blackberry, Windows, iOS…all suck, Android now and FOREVER!!!!!!! MWUAHAHAHAHA, lol, sorry, I’m in a n eeeeeevil mood

  • http://twitter.com/GeekZeke Geek Zeke

    Having a bulleted list of the new features at the top of this article would be great because:
    • I could get a quick overview of things that might excite me
    • I wouldn’t have to hunt through everything to find stuff I’m interested in
    • I have a short attention span
    • I would feel like 4S put usability first

  • john

    Regarding BB users (of which I am one). You should really pay more attention to us, why? Because iphone users are leaving 4square and using the iphone app, so many of my friends have. Although I love my BB when the iphone5 comes out I will be going to it. If 4square is good to me I will stick with you when I do the iphone 5 transition.

  • http://nicoelisnotatypo.com alohanico

    Steve, surely you could reach out to people in your local 4sq Market? I’ve had people, both known to me and not who reached out to me to change venue data either because I was the mayor there or a superuser.

    I don’t usually close people’s homes as venues, but I see no issue with shuttering made up venues. If there’s something like that you want me to clear up, holler at me on twitter (@alohanico) and I’ll do what I can. I’m a level one, so the only request of yours I can’t fulfil would be venue merges.

    That being said, sometimes it takes time because we have other social or career commitments to attend to.

  • Anonymous

    different phone = permanent fix

  • Anonymous

    I am really excited about the new features! Congrats everyone @ team foursquare

  • http://crashzone.tumblr.com Rukshan

    my symbian version is not working, gives me an error, symbian version is full of bugs

  • http://twitter.com/A_Rad10 Austin Burch

    windows phone gets nothing? …awesome. :/

  • http://nicoelisnotatypo.com alohanico

    Have you checked out the foursquare ambassador program? You could definitely be involved in improving you local foursquare experience.

    blog.foursquare.com/2011/01/13/ambassador-program

  • http://twitter.com/Machzy Mach Zreik

    No need to be a jerk.

  • Brian

    Thanks for the experience so far, an easier way to request a friend to be added to the android app would be cool, Irish user in Dublin, 43years.

  • http://twitter.com/Machzy Mach Zreik

    Disliking the lack of BlackBerry support.

    Also, my current foursquare app blows as some people have already mentioned. Not able to see how many days I’m away from Mayorships, not able to add venues, etc.

    When will foursquare start releasing the BlackBerry app the same time as Android & iPhone?

  • Brian

    Thanks for the experience so far, an easier way to request a friend to be added to the android app would be cool, Irish user in Dublin, 43years.

  • http://twitter.com/trev1881 trev ™

    Cool … Cant hardly wait o_O

  • http://twitter.com/somebaudy Baudouin VanHumbeeck

    Fine ‘n’ dandy ! Do you plan to do something about places in duplicate. I’m thinking “Great City Cafe” and “The Great City Cafe”. There are two “Foire du Livre” at Brussels (the one in Belgium). I’m pretty sure there are other duplicate places.

  • http://twitter.com/somebaudy Baudouin VanHumbeeck

    Fine ‘n’ dandy ! Do you plan to do something about places in duplicate. I’m thinking “Great City Cafe” and “The Great City Cafe”. There are two “Foire du Livre” at Brussels (the one in Belgium). I’m pretty sure there are other duplicate places.

  • http://twitter.com/somebaudy Baudouin VanHumbeeck

    Looks fine ‘n’ dandy ! Do you plan to do something about duplicate places ? There are two “Foire du Livre” in Brussels (the one in Belgium). I’m pretty sure there are other duplicate places.

  • http://twitter.com/marktharparms Mark J Daniels

    As both a user playing the game, and a merchant looking to reward my customers, this upgrade and forthcoming features such as the six new ‘specials’ sound excellent. I just hope the ‘check-in with a friend’ feature improves; this has always been a weakness as far as I can tell. Often it’s not recognised that I’ve checked in to a venue with one of my friends, even when we’re both at the same place and have checked in one after the other.

  • http://twitter.com/shacheng Shawn Cheng

    This is amazing and I can’t wait to see what surprises come out of SXSW this year.

  • http://twitter.com/marktharparms Mark J Daniels

    There’s something ironic about your duplicate posts…! ;-)

  • Anonymous

    I can do all those things from my iPhone.

  • http://mikepratt.tv Michael J. Pratt

    Ricky – Yes it does affect others. When you go to check in, many of those virtual or personal spots come up on the list of nearby places cluttering the list at times. prob is, I see the utility so I’m not sure of the solution

  • Anonymous

    I hadn’t, seems nice. Unfortunately I’m a student so I don’t have the time to engage myself at that level or the expertise to be taken seriously for stuff like that.

    It’d be nice though, I could give myself a fancy title and say I’m a Social Media Expert or something :P

  • http://www.facebook.com/igorlt Igor Leandro

    Symbian, the most used platform in the whole world, will be forgotten one more time.

    Congrats, Foursquare team!

  • @Jaysfo

    Congratulations ! proud to be a FourSquare ambassador.

  • http://schneidermike.com schneidermike

    SXSW 2010 LBS WARS: A New Hope
    SXSW 2011 LBS WARS: Foursquare Strikes Back
    SXSW 2012 ? ? ?

  • Contacta

    mmm! I’m happy!!! but…. what about
    push notifications for lists of “to do” ??

  • http://www.facebook.com/cozta Renato Cozta

    Novo foursquare vai ser liberado hoje.

  • http://twitter.com/akaCarioca Carlos

    Not fair? You are not at the venue, so what is “not fair” about? Not fair is to see couch potatoes jumping from place to place using whe mobile site and deceiving by checking when they are not even on the same city or coutry.

  • Clmoss09

    Blackberry users are the black sheep we don’t get the love first we always second or third on the list of to do fun

  • Anonymous

    I would be thankful to be on the list at all.

  • Anonymous

    I would be thankful to be on the list at all.

  • http://twitter.com/ZacharyRD Zachary Reiss-Davis

    This is really interesting; I’d stopped using Foursquare (which I want to write as FourSquare or Four Square…) because I wasn’t getting any value out of checking in (not enough friends using the service, and liked Yelp checkins more…) but this would make me give it another try.

  • http://twitter.com/ZacharyRD Zachary Reiss-Davis

    This is really interesting; I’d stopped using Foursquare (which I want to write as FourSquare or Four Square…) because I wasn’t getting any value out of checking in (not enough friends using the service, and liked Yelp checkins more…) but this would make me give it another try.

  • http://twitter.com/ZacharyRD Zachary Reiss-Davis

    This is really interesting; I’d stopped using Foursquare (which I want to write as FourSquare or Four Square…) because I wasn’t getting any value out of checking in (not enough friends using the service, and liked Yelp checkins more…) but this would make me give it another try.

  • Redakteur

    Exactly. Step Children of foursquare. The actual wp7-Client tralla Ducks As we are excluded from Ebers Venus containing Special Charakters … Don’t You like Windows Users? ;-)

  • Anonymous

    Please can you make a Maemo/MeeGo build in QT with Nokia

  • http://patternpulp.com Shayna K

    Great work and informative post. Looking fwd to testing 3.0 out.

  • http://www.twitter.com/paulsailer Paul Sailer

    Fantastic update to Foursquare! Truly worthy of “3.0″.

    The only thing missing I’d really like to see is *why* a place is trending, either based on publicly made Shouts or a basic Twitter search for the venue from in-app.

  • Anonymous

    The solution is a faster search. I’m fine searching for a specific place near me as long as I know the search will work quickly. Often I search and it just lags on “Loading.”

    Staring at my phone loading a for a couple minutes makes me not want to check in and instead actually talk to people.

  • Ken

    In addition to the above, I haven’t been able to add a new location since downloading the most recent blackberry app.

  • http://briangroth.wordpress.com/ BrianGroth

    The new features sound great for consumers and advertises. I can’t wait to get them on my Windows Phone 7 and continue with my (minor) Foursquare Ambassador work in Seattle.

  • Ankur

    i like the sound of all that!

  • http://twitter.com/Croaky Dan Croak

    I’ve been using the mobile web app the past couple of weeks on my iPhone. For the Blackberry, Symbian, and WP7 users, give it a shot. It’s got an old-school interface, but it’s actually really quick to accomplish the most typical goal: checking in.

    I’d love to see an effort to make the mobile web app a first-class citizen and I’m available to contract on the effort!

  • Loisaida Sam

    Blackberry is for girls

  • http://blog.foursquare.com foursquare

    SO much love for BlackBerry users! We have two client engineers hustling to launch the new app with updated features. They’re working as fast as they can.

  • gil

    It’s rare that I have a “Loading.” screen. Could it be a possible network issue or geographical issue? I’m on Sprint in Chicago.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=695934404 Keith King

    Windows Phone users have a pretty ugly interface.
    Anything new planned for us??
    And like some folks here have mentioned, could use faster response to the duplicates and incorrect address venues I keep turning in.

  • gil

    Return of the Mayor?

  • Anonymous

    Cool! Can’t wait to try it out.

  • http://www.facebook.com/devin.with.an.i.clark Devin Clark

    Will there ever be a proper iPad version of Foursquare?

  • http://twitter.com/AUDIOFEEDBACK †

    Blackberrys, Already dead ?

  • Anonymous

    T-Mobile in Seattle. I’d blame my network more, if I didn’t have full service and other apps (e.g., google maps) seem to load at normal speeds.

  • Christiaan

    with 37.6% market share?

  • http://chicipad.com/category/technology/ iPad 2 tech

    They’ve had a “hot pot” type game for a long time and each review and check in helps refine future recommendations. It’s obviously worked better on my trips to Germany than in my remote UK location, but then 4sq and gowalla aren’t great here anyway. As an actual tool for finding places, Qype has worked better, but then 4sq is a game right? I think I’m too old to judge that!

  • http://www.facebook.com/DAE51D Daevid Vincent

    Great. Useless features. How about the features that people actually need, like:
    * “Auto Checkin” (like Checkin Assistant tries to do but hasn’t been updated in forever! Lame).
    * Ability to Checkin and say whom you are with (like Facebook does).
    * Faster/better GPS location tracking would be good too as it really seems pretty pokey and sometimes it’s just way the hell off base.
    * How come if I create a new venue, I’m not automatically the mayor?
    * How come I checkin to places and it says “you’re 1 day away” and I check in again the next day and I’m still not the mayor!?
    * More badges! I flew from SEA to NYC and thought for sure I’d see some kind of “traveler” badge. Nothing.
    * In fact, I haven’t gotten a badge in a long time it seems, at first they were like every week. :-

    On a happier note, I’m glad you are at least making new versions and trying to build up the Android app more. Maybe next version…

  • http://www.facebook.com/DAE51D Daevid Vincent

    Great. Useless features. How about the features that people actually need, like:
    * “Auto Checkin” (like Checkin Assistant tries to do but hasn’t been updated in forever! Lame).
    * Ability to Checkin and say whom you are with (like Facebook does).
    * Faster/better GPS location tracking would be good too as it really seems pretty pokey and sometimes it’s just way the hell off base.
    * How come if I create a new venue, I’m not automatically the mayor?
    * How come I checkin to places and it says “you’re 1 day away” and I check in again the next day and I’m still not the mayor!?
    * More badges! I flew from SEA to NYC and thought for sure I’d see some kind of “traveler” badge. Nothing.
    * In fact, I haven’t gotten a badge in a long time it seems, at first they were like every week. :-

    On a happier note, I’m glad you are at least making new versions and trying to build up the Android app more. Maybe next version…

  • Mav Javier

    When will there be an app for Bada OS? I hope developers will create one soon. All I could use is the “mobile web” type; I can’t gain mayorship.

  • Mav Javier

    When will there be an app for Bada OS? I hope developers will create one soon. All I could use is the “mobile web” type; I can’t gain mayorship.

  • Soren

    This need to get to dk to. There so way behold with this nice app.

  • Peter

    You are a great man.

  • Peter

    I’m looking forward to checking this out on my Blackberry! And yes, I still use my phone – only for foursquare though, because the app works so great on Blackberry!

  • Chance PinkMohawk

    Some of that “useless ” stuff is part of what we enjoy! So how about getting rid of the cruddy attitude and focus on some positive or simply scroll past it if that’s not too much trouble for you!

  • @JamesBrownInMia

    IT MUST BE CHRISTMAS! foursquare 3.0 launches tonight for Android and iPhone with dozens of new features and an new “levels” for retails to reward users. Blackberry version launches later in the week. Check this out!

  • http://ryan.snook.cc Snook

    It does affect me when I want to check in to normal stuff and all I see is peoples toilet venues. Foursquare needs to prioritize results, places with several check-ins, full address, etc need to squash out the piddly venues, force those ones into search. I shouldn’t have to search for Starbucks. The initial suggestions should not be strictly decided by distance, venue popularity should be taken into account.

  • http://twitter.com/KENNECTED K E N N E C T E D

    As a super user we need to be able to merge venues from the App. There are duplicates I see when checking in and I would like to be able to merge them on the fly. By the time I get back to my desktop ive forgotten to do the merge.

  • Bigtazz2000

    Foursquare need to fix the check-in and make them count. I can get a notification of too many check-ins and it will zero out all my check-ins for the day. However if I check the leader board people on the leader board will have twice or three times the score I have. Some days it will tell me I have one more day to become mayor of a venue, then the next day it will tel me I have ten more days before I become mayor. The inconsistence check-ins are getting very frustrating.

  • http://twitter.com/YannaBeau Iyana G

    This all sounds great! Love the recommendations, right now i am fighting my BF against his Yelp “places” app

  • http://twitter.com/alexiskold Alex Iskold

    This looks awesome and amazing. Well done!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ian-Christopher-David-Daniels/100000611456675 Ian Christopher David Daniels

    What time will it come on?

  • http://twitter.com/Vietnam720 Ben Chua

    Good job guys. Checking in is more fun now :)

  • http://twitter.com/jonjongoco Neil Ross Goco

    Yeah same here, waiting for an updated version for my N8.

  • http://twitter.com/jonjongoco Neil Ross Goco

    Hey people, like this comment to show your support for Symbian. Please release foursquare 3.0 for Symbian asap. We’re stuck with version 1++++.

  • Michael

    Can you please make the upcoming Symbian version available outside of the Ovi store for us Sony Ericsson Symbian owners???

  • Sonicbox

    Maybe I’ll find Foursquare interesting again, instead of pointless. Good progress. I’m gonna see how it compares to Gowalla… who realized being Mayor was really lame far earlier than Foursquare did. Love the competition in this space.

  • Shannon

    yup, and that is not cool…

  • ~AR

    where’s my Symbian S60 5th app?!?!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UMC4O4JIQKEJR3FHMUNKOM264A ~AR

    wha’s thaa??!?! oooohhhh.

  • http://twitter.com/nuttynupur nuttynupur

    Do you have any tieups in India? SPecifically, Kolkata? Am using it here, there are mayors too of places I frequent, but I don’t know whether they are rewarded.

  • http://www.808Girl.com/ 808 Girl Media

    Interesting comment from someone who is in the online marketing space? BBs are still considered to be smartphones, even if you hate them.

  • Daniels18ian

    WTF!!!!! I DIDNT GET THE UPDATE>:0 And im with android

  • http://twitter.com/sriously Sriram Ramamurthy

    Here’s an idea.. how abt reward some points for users who report duplicate places? Win/Win scenario – the duplicates get cleared from the listing and users get bonus pts for giving back to the 4sq community

  • http://obscurelyfamous.com Daniel Ha

    Freakin’ sweet guys. Can’t wait for the update.

  • http://twitter.com/jonmilani Jon Milani

    Boom! Love it!

  • http://www.facebook.com/Boris360 Boris France

    For WP7, please accept check-in with “accent” like “é è à ô î …”. For example in France we can’t have the Jet Setter badge because we can’t check-in in “aéroport”.
    Thnaks a lot for making Foursquare

  • http://www.360-netconsulting.com Soenke Prestin

    six new types of foursquare specials = good news for my clients :-)

  • Michael F. Forni

    From Italy, Michael F. Forni, 4sq Ambassador on hold reporting: foursquare 3.0 charged and weaponed! Usability is always on top an new features are breathtaking. Tnx 2 all de kru! Job weel done, guys!
    twitter: @michaelforni
    4sq: Michael F. Forni

  • http://twitter.com/rucijs Rihards Ručevics

    well done guys. well done!

  • http://twitter.com/rucijs Rihards Ručevics

    well done guys. well done.

  • http://twitter.com/marc_ribo marc ribó

    Guys, the post is nice, but not everyone has time to read it! It would be good some bullet point to summarize what’s new on the 3.0 version.

    Thanks!

    marc

  • http://twitter.com/marc_ribo marc ribó

    Guys, the post is nice but not everyone has time to read it. It would be great if you could just include some bullet points to summarize what’s new in the 3.0 version.

    Thanks!

    marc.

  • http://twitter.com/somebaudy Baudouin VanHumbeeck

    my thought exactly. I’ve since found out about the duplicate deletion effort.

  • http://twitter.com/vikas_aditya Vikas Aditya

    why just not to use Facebook checkin? why to use one extra App on phone?

  • http://twitter.com/AspiringKaro Karo

    WebOS? Anyone? I’d love to see these updates on my Palm Pre.

  • http://twitter.com/pellymelly Melina

    I add those venues to my To Do list to keep track of them for later.

  • bd

    totally agree, but I still like to be “Mayor” of my throne!

  • ONESLYONE

    I like it.

  • http://twitter.com/allisonralston Allison Ralston

    Looks great! I love how Foursquare is beginning to be a more well rounded app, and turning into more than just a check-in app. Great job to all who were involved!

  • http://twitter.com/sirgeoph Geoff G

    Hey, I’m the developer of the webOS app. I’ve been in talks with foursquare and I’ll be getting access to the new features soon. once I have access, expect the update in a few weeks.

  • http://twitter.com/sirgeoph Geoff G

    Hey, I’m the developer of the webOS app. I’ve been in talks with foursquare and I’ll be getting access to the new features soon. once I have access, expect the update in a few weeks.

  • Dailey Turner

    The new specials seem like a good reason to download foursquare. I wrote an article about foursquare 3.0 http://tinyurl.com/6xxtcbz

  • http://www.facebook.com/DAE51D Daevid Vincent

    I do have to say the new version is much more cosmetically appealing (although it does look a lot like an iPhone app on Android, which I’m not sure how I feel about yet).

  • http://rynoweb.com Chuck Reynolds

    The update is great and well overdue – I’m thinking about small business and how they can capitalize on the updates… wrote about it here http://rynoweb.com/foursquare-3-small-business/
    I’m really stoked to see where the algorithm goes with the Explore tab… Yelp has this but it sucks… and the location stuff is mostly broke… and their algo sucks… SO… I’m excited to see where Foursquare takes this

  • Deej

    This is a great update! Thanks so much for the hard work!

  • http://twitter.com/michaeleatssf michael meadows

    I’ve also noticed that, as a business, you used to see that last 20 or so “Most Recent Visitors” listed, allowing us to go in and follow regulars on twitter. I now only see the last three. This has been really valuable to see that many of our visitors are coming from outside the neighborhood.

    Any chance of expanding that a bit?

  • http://twitter.com/SwirlOnCastro Swirl On Castro

    In the business section, we used to be able to see the last 20 or so “Most Recent Visitors” Now we only see 3. We used to look at this to see that a lot of our customers were coming from outside of the neighborhood.

    Any chance on getting that bumped back up or allowing us to control how many people we see?

  • sfindie

    the upgrade has lots of new developments in it, nice one!

    I’ll also echo some things I’d like to be addressed.

    – duplicate Places. While I like being mayor of both ’43 Muni geneva’ and ’43 muni bus’, it’s a bit silly that you allow both Places to co-exist.

    – explain to me why I can be Mayor of a Place on one day and then the next day I check into the Place, the previous Mayor is Mayor again and it says I’m 5 days away from becoming Mayor again. Huh? What?

  • http://twitter.com/elrolio Matthew Scott

    hey yall, loving the new integration of explore and maps. but i noticed in the TO DO tab, the map icon is inactive. can I also see all of my to-dos on a (global) map thru making the globe icon active?

  • Penguinsoda

    I can no longer add venues “in the field” either. What good does it do me if I have to come home and add the venue from my computer… I’ve tried every way from Sunday to add a venue on the phone and it just sits there looking at me. Very frustrating and almost want to give up on Foursquare and move to a different app. But glad to know I’m not the only one. having that issue.

  • http://www.facebook.com/fjlozanoacosta Fernando Lozano

    The bar with the Foursquare logo at the top is far too big for my Android phone. But still, this update shreds the new Gowalla to pieces… yet again. Keep up the good work!

  • http://twitter.com/susansoaps Susan Svec

    I know you guys said you’re working on updates for all the platforms but as I didn’t see any mention of Palm, thought I’d better chime in just so we aren’t forgotten in the crunch. (Squeaky wheel and all that.) I use Foursquare primarily for business marketing and so am VERY interested in the new merchant features. Please do let us Palm users in on all that Love as well! Thanks lots. a Palm Pre user.

  • http://blog.foursquare.com foursquare

    the Palm developer is working on getting the updates in!

  • http://twitter.com/ryanfsalerno Ryan F. Salerno

    4sq vs svngr battle needs to happen

  • Matias

    Why people’s homes must be deleted Steve? i get all the rest but…

  • Camilloincanada

    Better try a real phone. Lol

  • http://29thfloor.com 29thfloor

    I think a good solution would be a way to tag a place as “probably not relevant to most people”. Doesn’t have to be private but more public places would be weighted more in search. Then if you check in it gains more weight and moves up in the search.

  • taxioviedo

    I think it is fantastic the new foursquare.. but what about push advertisings in “to do list” I need a ping when I am near a place I wanted to visit…

  • http://davidvkimball.weebly.com David V Kimball

    I’m eagerly anticipating the Windows Phone 7 foursquare 3.0 update.

  • http://twitter.com/tomchikoore Tom Chikoore

    Loving the new 3.0 release. However, I think you should add sentiment analysis to the recommendations. I have made my case in this blog post: http://tomchikoore.com/2011/03/12/dear-foursquare-please-add-sentiment-analysis-to-recommendations-in-3-0/

  • Sharon

    Bummed that I’d have to buy the latest model of iPhone to see any of these updates. My first generation phone was expensive enough and works fine, so I won’t be buying a new one any time soon…. would be swell if the new Foursquare was “backwards compatible” for phones that were still “cutting edge” just a few months ago but which are now apparently obsolete.

  • Phileas

    As I am on WP7 for now, I put my 4sq activity on sleep mode…

  • Phileas

    As I am on WP7 for now, I put my 4sq activity on sleep mode…

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001449415320 Uwitz Haheho

    sore” ngopi…;;;;

  • http://twitter.com/josepherdon josepherdon

    update for Windows Phone 7 app please

  • Anonymous

    excited to try out 3.0 and increase my score on the leaderboard too.

  • Che

    My 4square crashed and disappeared on my Motorola Cliq market. Plus, 4square market doesn’t recognize my phone# and droid phone. Any suggestions?

  • http://trteknoloji.tumblr.com/post/4444543032/2-suatanlee-seo-yarismasi-sac-ekimi-teknoloji-merkezleri Suatanlee

    Thanks Foursquare

  • http://meandeangreen.com/post/4637641733/2-suatanlee-seo-yarismasi-sac-ekimi-teknoloji-merkezleri Teknoloji Merkezleri

    amazing

  • Anonymous

    Rolex quality namely represents accurately.

  • Delizzious

    My phone broke so when I got new one and went to market to download FOURSQUARE, NO LUCK……for some reason I can’t get it back on my phone….can’t find the APP in market anymore….so I went to my PC and still nothimg…that android APP BUTTON not working either…HELP….I MISS MY FOURSQUARE CHECKINS…CAN SOMEONE SEND ME APP PLEASE OR TELL ME HOW TO GET IT BACK….MY FRIENDS AND I WERE ON A SUPER BADGE competition and I’m pretty sure I lost now….HELP PLEASE….@DELIZZIOUS.. :(

  • http://blog.foursquare.com foursquare

    The app is only available for Android 1.6 or up – you will no longer see it in the marketplace if you have an older Android phone. You can still check in via m.foursquare.com though!

  • knudsen

    I cant find it on my wp7 on marketplace

  • http://blog.foursquare.com foursquare

    take a look at foursquare.com/devices

  • knudsen

    yes and if i press on the link for windows phone it says item cant be find

  • Thiago

    Symbian^3 version, please!!!!!

  • foad999
  • http://www.facebook.com/people/ميار-الشمري/100002368790494 ميار الشمري
  • http://allweekwalls.com/ pressurized walls manhattan

    thanks for this post .. 

  • Sarah

    I also have the issue with “loading” or not able to pull up a venue near me and not allowing me to search for the venue on my own.

  • Mmarldonman

    Seems like a great idea, just a little worried about your level of access to my phone, it looks invasive.
    Regards… IJH

  • O33K
  • Whistler Heather

    I think I’d like to work for Foursquare, I’m in Nanaimo BC these days…. Playing Foursquare driving my friends to join & crazy… Love it, live it!!

  • http://www.cygnismedia.com/ Facebook App Developers

    successful past update for foursquare.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=508525071 Jäke Stürk

    are there some glitches to getting a badge? Ive checked to multiple places more than 100 times and I still have not gotten my Century badge! Strange.