Hey hey -
So it’s time for another round of cities to be added to the roster.. and this time we went pretty deep. 50 new cities overall (we just doubled our coverage!) and these ones are sprinkled all around the world.
People always ask how we choose which cities we’re going to launch and the answer is always the same…. we listen to all your feedback! Whether you’re voting on the web or harassing us on Twitter :), it’s the cities you ask for that we end up launching!
So take a look at the list below and spread the word. More big things coming soon so stay tuned… (and for a full list of all 100+ cities, see foursquare.com)
NORTH AMERICA
Charlotte, NC
Columbus, OH
Honolulu, HI
Louisville, KY
Memphis, TN
Nashville, TN
New Haven, CT
Oklahoma City, OK
Orlando, FL
Park City, UT
Providence, RI
Sacramento, CA
Tampa, FL
Tucson, AZ
Calgary, Canada
Edmonton, Canada
Ottawa, Canada
Mexico City, Mexico
SOUTH AMERICA
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
São Paulo, Brazil
EUROPE
Birmingham, UK
Bristol, UK
Brighton, UK
Cologne, Germany
Edinburgh, UK
Frankfurt, Germany
Hamburg, Germany
Lisbon, Portugal
Milan, Italy
Oslo, Norway
Reykjavik, Iceland
Vienna, Austria
Zurich, Switzerland
AFRICA
Johannesburg, South Africa
MIDDLE EAST
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Tel Aviv, Israel
ASIA
Beijing, China
Bangkok, Thailand
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Mumbai, India
Seoul, Korea
Shanghai, China
Singapore, Singapore
Tokyo, Japan
AUSTRALIA
Brisbane, Australia
Melbourne, Australia
Sydney, Australia
NEW ZEALAND
Wellington, New Zealand
ps: check out the Mashable coverage too!
We’re super excited to announce that our API is now live.
It’s something that’s been in testing with a small group of developers for the last few months. Even during this phase, we’ve seen you guys make all sorts of interesting applications using our data:
- an Android app
- a venue popularity tracker: SocialGreat
- a foursquare layer on Layar
- a location-based game: MobZombies
- an integration with Peek Mobile devices: PeekMaps
- an RFID/Oyster card-based checkin system: FourTap
- a way to find deals nearby based on your check-in history: Yipit
- a Wordpress plugin
- a Firefox plugin
- a check-in diary: Last Night’s Checkins
We have a new landing page for all dev-related content: http://developer.foursquare.com. We’ve started by highlighting a few of the applications and developers there. Eventually, we’d love to have a directory that lists all of your work.
Join the conversation by subscribing to the developer discussion group. If you have any other questions or want to write in with comments directly, send us a message at api@foursquare.com. We can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with!
Most of you know how foursquare tries to reward you for doing things in the real world… discovering new places, doing interesting things, meeting new friends… they all unlock points and badges.
For a long time, we’ve wanted to make foursquare points translate into something meaningful… maybe they translate into a free coffee or something like AmEx rewards or frequent flyer miles. Well, I think we found something better…
We’ve recently started working with the folks at Techies Give Back to try to figure out a way that foursquare points can be donated to charitable causes. On December 13th, they’re organizing NY Tech Gives Back on behalf of a non-profit called CampInteractive - which empowers inner-city youth through outdoor activities and tech workshops. It’s a day where people can give back to the community by volunteering and donating.
And we’d like to offer up a sponsorship on the foursquare leaderboard to help raise money for the cause.
In exchange for a pledge of at least $0.03 for every point added to the foursquare leaderboard between Monday 12/7 and Sunday 12/13, we’ll allow your brand or organization to re-skin our iPhone leaderboard. Whether you want to throw your logo on there or treat it like a “take-over” media buy, it’s yours for the week.
And for reference, last week foursquare users in NYC generated some 150,000 points on the leaderboard. At a pledge of $0.03 per point that would mean raising $4500 for Camp Interactive.
So, what do you say? Know of anyone who’d be up for it? If so, contact info@techiesgiveback.org to make a bid ($0.03 per point or higher, please). Highest bidder will be selected on December 1st, 2009 (at which point we’ll reach out to you to work out the details). And remember, your donation is tax deductible.
There are other ways to get involved too. Buy a ticket to the Techies Give Back Ice Skating event on December 1st and every ticket sold allows another child to have a day out and receive mentoring.
And special thanks to Adam Gillman & Simon Kirk at Techies Give Back for making this happen!
Slight tweak to the “friends” tab that now let’s you see what your friends in other cities are up to. (scroll aalllll the way down)
We’ve been meaning to do this for a while… finally got around to it. Helpful to both homesick travelers and brand new users. Enjoy!
(via dpstyles™)
Whoa, foursquare widget running on Android OS! I love this!
if you have the foursquare app for Android installed you can add this right now! (Moto Droid!)
From home screen:
1. Press “Menu” button
2. Tap “Add”
3. Tap “Widgets”
4. Tap “Foursquare Friends 3x3”
… and that’s it! More awesome work from @jlapenna!
ps: download the Android app here: foursquare.com/android
(via dpstyles™)
We launched our latest round of cities today — this time all across Europe. We’re introducing 15 new cities to bring our full total to 53! The full Europe list now:
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Athens, Greece
Barcelona, Spain
Berlin, Germany
Brussels, Belgium
Copenhagen, Denmark
Dublin, Ireland
Geneva, Switzerland
Helsinki, Finland
London, UK
Madrid, Spain
Manchester, UK
Munich, Germany
Paris, France
Prague, Czech Republic
Rome, Italy
Stockholm, Sweden
We’re choosing which cities to launch next based on the feedback you leave on our suggested cities list (http://foursquare.com/cities). Drop your vote there; we’re slowly ramping up to lots more places around the world!
And the first of the foursquare halloween costumes :)
Just saw this tweet from my friend @heathercapri:
“Look! @elaineellis is a foursquare scout! Look at all those badges she’s earned! No wonder she’s mayor”
More:
http://brightkite.com/objects/1e84bec1f9fe3264109b724ca8b842d5?referer=http%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2F
Hey hey - anyone notice our new “Places” screen on the iPhone? :) We tweaked the way we show nearby places, so we can call attention to your favorites vs. your friends’ favorites vs. everything else that’s nearby.
A small tweak, but this should fix the “foursquare never knows where I am!” bugs we’ve been hearing about. We’re finding it’s also a great way to find out about places you’re friends frequent that you haven’t had a chance to check out yet.
Anyway, play with it tonight and let us know what you think! As we’re getting closer to our code re-write you should see lots more little improvements like this coming from us.
Have you seen this video? It’s from a subway station in Stockholm, Sweden where some designers were trying to create an incentive for people to skip the escalator and take the stairs. Their solution was to turn the steps into a piano where each step would play a different musical note - basically creating a way to make the taking the stairs more fun than taking the escalator. And it worked.
I feel like this is also what we’re trying to do at foursquare - how do you make exploring cities / meeting up with friends / discovering new places more fun?
Last week we announced a partnership with San Francisco’s BART (the mass transit system) that let’s foursquare users earn badges for riding public transportation, unlock tips about the interesting coffee shops, music stores, etc you can find near BART stations and even win free train tickets on BART trains for checking-in.
… and just like the piano steps that make taking the stairs more fun than taking the escalator, we’re trying to make taking public transport more fun than being stuck in highway traffic. :)
We’re loving this and hopes it foreshadows the types of things we’re thinking about and the types of experiences we’re planning on creating.
Official press release from BART: http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2009/news20091022.aspx
