foursquare

marsbot: Foursquare pins. Who wants one?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:43:45 -0500

Foursquare pins. Who wants one?

Yet another round of new cities... sprinkled all over the world.

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:38:00 -0500

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 heard you like APIs

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:06:00 -0500

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!

Using foursquare to drive charitable giving...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:22:06 -0500

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...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:08:57 -0500

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...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:32:00 -0500

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™)

Eurotrip.

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:37:26 -0500

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...

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:16:00 -0400

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”

http://brightkite.com/objects/1e84bec1f9fe3264109b724ca8b842d5?referer=http%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2F

Hey hey - anyone notice our new “Places” screen on...

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:18:39 -0400

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...

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:39:00 -0400

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

Amazing stuff from Mari, our superstar designer. (Marz, you...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:02:12 -0400

Amazing stuff from Mari, our superstar designer. (Marz, you should sell prints!)

(via marsbot)

Face-to-Face Socializing Starts With a Mobile Post (via...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:44:00 -0400

Face-to-Face Socializing Starts With a Mobile Post (via Foursquare, a Social Network Site, Puts Users Face to Face - NYTimes.com)

“It’s planned serendipity,” said Emily Woolf, 24, a strategic planner living in Brooklyn who checks in on Foursquare when she wants to grab coffee or a drink with friends. “At this point, I don’t even bother texting or calling my friends. I just check Foursquare to see if they’re nearby and go meet them.”

Great piece by @jennydeluxe on foursquare in The New York Times, our first “Big Media” piece so far.

Special thx to @emii @anniemal @SugarMamas @stribs @newyorkcubic who all got shoutouts in the piece!

This guy in London (@iamdanw) hacked together a way to check-in...

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:39:37 -0400

This guy in London (@iamdanw) hacked together a way to check-in to places on foursquare using an Oyster Card (aka UK Metrocard) and an RFID reader. Awesome.

http://vimeo.com/7068682

All this and we haven’t ever formally released our API yet. :)

foursquare taking North America by storm!

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:21:00 -0400

Hey all -

We launched another round of cities today - 15 new cities total - and our biggest round so far! Check out the list below…

UNITED STATES
Baltimore, MD
Cleveland, OH
Indianapolis, IN
Kansas City, MO
Milwaukee, WI
New Orleans, LA
Omaha, NE
Pittsburgh, PA
Raleigh-Durham, NC
Richmond, VA
Salt Lake City, UT
San Antonio, TX
St. Louis, MO

CANADA
Montreal, Canada
Toronto, Canada

… which brings is to 38 total! Just so you know, we choose which cities to launch based on the feedback we get from users, so thanks to everyone who suggested their city. And if your hometown didn’t make the list this time, stay tuned… we’re just getting warmed up over here :)

Thanks again for all your support!

- Team foursquare (@dens @naveen @harryh @nathanfolkman @tristanwalker)

Great interview / piece on foursquare from the girls at DesignGlut.com

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:17:00 -0400

What kind of feedback have you gotten?
Dennis: It’s a lot like the feedback Twitter got early on. I don’t know if that’s encouraging or just to be expected. People say, “I hate it, I would never use this.”
Naveen: Well, more like, “What’s this for? Why would I use this?”
Dennis: And then people come back to it. “OK I tried it, now I’m kind of hooked.” There’s definitely that same hater-to-hardcore-user cycle. So we want to encourage people to sign up and play around with it! And let us know what you think – a lot of the decisions that we make about what we’re going to build next come directly from the users. The more feedback that we get from people, the better.

Read the rest here:

Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai, the founders of Foursquare | Design Glut

Really digging @Elizabeth’s foursquare stationary!...

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:50:00 -0400

Really digging @Elizabeth’s foursquare stationary! (“From the desk of the mayor”). Be sure to check out some of her other designs too: http://twitpic.com/kwkmv

BTW, in case you were wondering, our superstar designer is @mari18 (Tumblr too!)

Announcing the foursquare angel roster...

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:54:00 -0400

A little less than a month ago when we announced that we raised some seed financing from USV and OATV, we alluded to some of the angel investors we also brought onboard. We wanted to take a minute and give a shout-out to our angels and all the support they’ve given us so far.

Jack Dorsey, creator of Twitter.
Twitter has changed the way a lot of us think about things - presence, status, search. Jack’s advice and feedback have already proven to be invaluable as we hustle to improve and grow foursquare.

Kevin Rose, founder of Digg.
A day after we launched at SXSW, Kevin tracked us down and bullied us into making a badge for Digg’s party. Since then he’s been one of our biggest supporters and a great source of advice and product ideas.

Joshua Schachter, founder of Delicious.
Since we’ve launched, people have been describing parts of foursquare as “Delicious for places”. We love this comparison and we’ve been thrilled to have Joshua’s feedback and insight into our product goals.

Alex Rainert, co-founder of Dodgeball.
Very few people understand the mobile/social space as well as Alex. Since our very first iPhone build, he’s been throwing feedback and product suggestions at us. Karen Bonna-Rainert, Alex’s wife and a good friend from Dennis’ grad school days at ITP @ NYU is also actively involved.

SV Angels LLC
The angel group founded and backed by Ron Conway. Ron’s been a major player in seed-stage tech investments since the early days of Google and we’re thrilled to have SVA’s support.

Chad Stoller, NYC branding/advertising/interactive superstar.
You can thank Chad for the “mayor” idea - which he demanded we build so he could flaunt his loyalty to Think Coffee. We sold out and wrote the code in exchange for two beers. :)

Sergio Salvatore, long-time music / technology entrepreneur.
A long-time friend of Naveen’s, Sergio’s been advising our team on scaling and technical architecture issues since the early days of foursquare.

I can’t tell you how excited we are to have such a group of superstars behind the things we’re building. Thanks again to everyone involved and to all those who have helped out along the way!

-team foursquare

http://foursquare.com

r: Official Unofficial Foursquare London Launch...

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:39:25 -0400

Official Unofficial Foursquare London Launch Party!

Foursquare has launched in London!

Meet outside Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen at 7 PM on 9th October 2009 for drinks, merriment and Foursquare!

Don’t forget to sign up to Foursquare + install the app on your iPhone or Android device. Alternatively you can play through your mobile web browser at m.foursquare.com.

Need moar info/what’s Foursquare?

♥ Rey, Darren + Boon

tomorrow night! get out there and meet up! (at Hoxton Square Bar)

A foursquare reference on The Simpsons??? In an episode heavy...

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:00:00 -0400

A foursquare reference on The Simpsons??? In an episode heavy on Twitter / Facebook references, Lisa quips: “No one plays foursquare, they just gossip!”

I’m 50/50 on whether it was a nod to us - and if so, it’s a a total dig - but whatevs!

Little backstory: Kate Bauer pings me via text (“they just foursquared on the simpsons!”), I tweet it out, flip thru the twitter search speculation, and then Josh fwds this to be about 40 mins later.

Thanks to Josh (@hellonewman and Tanya R) for the clips!

What Sam, Jon and crew at doing over @socialgreat is...

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:58:23 -0400

What Sam, Jon and crew at doing over @socialgreat is amazing

caro:

adamiss:

Drop.io’s Sam Lessin analyzes 200,000 checkins on Foursquare through SocialGreat. Read the whole post, it’s awesome. A few (non-surprising) favorites:

6. In NYC the people at R/GA seem to check in an absurd amount… same with the people at blip.
7. Tom and Jerry’s continues to dominate New York normal evenings
8. But Brooklyn Bowl has been doing really well on weekends

check out the data on this pdf as well

(via jonsteinberg)

This is really cool, especially as someone who is splitting time between the two cities. Thursday nights here (San Francisco) definitely aren’t what they are in New York, even though I did randomly run into a bunch of Foursquare users at Zeitgeist last night.