Announcing the global hackathon winners!

Last week’s round-the-clock, round-the-world global hackathon saw more than 500 developers all over the globe produce a ton of incredible apps built on top of our API.

You guys submitted over 90 entries for a chance to win one of the prizes and we’ve spent the last week happily sorting through all of the submissions, balancing factors like utility, execution, and overall value the hacks would bring to the more than 10,000,000 people on foursquare. We’re so thankful so many of you came to hack with us, and it was quite difficult for us to narrow it down, but here’s where we ended up:

Grand prize winner:
Plan your next trip uses our Explore API to generate a personalized two-day itinerary for your next travel destination. Developer Benjamin Netter in Paris, France will receive the coveted foursquare title belt and dinner with Naveen. A hacker’s dream come true!

These grand prize finalists win world glory and will also become part of our new Platformer Badge:

• Use Sqavenger to create or play a scavenger hunt via text message and foursquare (our favorite so far: Historic NYC Buildings). It was built by a four-person team split across NYC and SF.

• Intersquares (by Mihai Parparita in SF) lets you see the intersection of your foursquare check-ins with a friend’s. So, if you just met someone, you can see where your paths have crossed in the past. It’s also a great way to re-live past events where you and your friends checked in together. For example, you can see when you’ve overlapped with our founder Dennis here.

And Now, A Word From Our (Global) Sponsors
(Also, a huge thanks to Twilio and NASDAQ for their part in making the global hackathon a massive success around the world!)

• the NASDAQ prize – a trip to NYC to see your app run on NASDAQ’s seven story tower in Times Square – goes to Near.co for building the best website using our new venue Push API. A four person team in SF worked through the weekend to build a digital screen replacement so that store managers can usher in the modern storefront with foursquare. The app provides tons of useful info – like hours of operation, accepted credit cards, Zagat ratings – and also flashes a person’s name and face when they check in to that place.

• the Twilio prize – a trip to NYC to meet the team at Union Square Ventures – goes to VenueMachine, which allows venue owners to identify and reward influential visitors in real-time. Twilio will be flying Barnaby Malet and Namit Chadha from London soon.

In addition, VenueMachine and four other finalists will receive $500 in Twilio credit. The 4 other finalists are: Sqavenger, fourhealth, Bimbimbab, and Postsquare.

To round things out, twelve other hacks emerged as People Choice winners. They were selected by hackathon participants at our four official sites, or voted highly by the developer community in our global online poll.

• Gettogether – A slick interface for scheduling an event with your friends.
• Magic Muggle Clock – It displays friends’ recent check-ins on a clock like the Weasleys’ family clock found in the Harry Potter. Updates auto-magically (hah!)
• How ___ are you? – A way to discover interesting demographic information about the places you check in to.
• PlaceFace – Updates your foursquare and Twitter profile photos as appropriate for each check-in.
• Photosquare – Browse photos from venues near you on your iPad and easily add them to your To-Do list.
• DigiDJ – A jukebox system users who have checked in can add songs from their phone.
• 4SQSign – An e-mail signature that updates with each check-in.
• Check Me In – An iPad tool enabling merchants to check in customers using their profile photo
• 4square TV – Creates a video showcasing your recent foursquare activity.
• Hear I Am – Help you discover people near you when you’re out and about who have similar musical tastes.
• One More Check-in – Shows you what new badges you could unlock with just a few more check-ins.

Phew! So many amazing hacks! Check out all of them at fshackathon.appspot.com.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our first-ever global hackathon. We couldn’t be more proud or more humbled by the energy and creativity of the foursquare developer community.