Tag: Check-in Services

Foursquare Launches Check-In History Pages

Foursquare today launched a brand-new history page feature on its site. The feature lists user’s past check-ins and is fully searchable. In addition, check-ins can be filtered by month or year, by the type of venue, by neighborhood, by city, by country, or even by who was also checked-in at a location. Each check-in in the list can be clicked for an informative page about a user’s visit. The pages include check-in photos, comments about the venue, a list of Foursquare friends who were also checked-in at the location, and an embedded Google map pinpointing the check-in location.

The announcement came on the Foursquare blog, where the feature was touted as just one of many features that will soon be added to Foursquare. History page features to look forward to include filtering by specific venues, adding “tips,” and creating lists.

Users need not worry if they have accidentally checked-in to somewhere embarrassing: check-ins can be deleted. Clicking on the arrow next to each check-in in the history list will take users to a summary page for that check-in, where it can be deleted.

My check-in history is rather boring, as I suspect most Foursquare user’s histories’ will be. First, my history is a bit outdated and my last check-in is from 2010. Also, looking through my history, there are a lot of trips to work and to the grocery store. However, with a bit of quick editing I was able to create a short, exciting history of coffee house, theme park, and music venue check-ins.

What do you think about Foursquare’s new history? Will you edit your history to make it seem more exciting? Does this service cross a privacy line? Do you still use check-in services? Leave a comment below and let me know.

May 4, 2012
Foursquare For BlackBerry Gets “Explore” Improvements

Foursquare announced an update with some new features for its BlackBerry app today. The improvements mainly come to the “Explore” feature.

“Every time you find a place with Explore, we find the right recommendations for you, based on where you’ve been, lists you follow, time of day, and the 1,500,000,000 check-ins from the foursquare community,” the company explains in a blog post. “With this new version, we share more of the logic with you. You’ll also see pricing information, photos, tips, and friends who have been there right in the results.”

“With the new Explore filters, you can find whatever type of adventure you’re craving, whether it’s places you’ve never been or places your friends love,” the company adds. “Need a recommendation near home and not work? Now you can get recommendations for anywhere in the world.”

It also comes with menus from over 250,000 U.S. restaurants, as part of Foursquare’s partnership with SinglePlatform announced last month.

The app can be found in BlackBerry App World here.

Last month, Foursquare actually made the Explore feature available for the web version (not just mobile).

February 20, 2012
Craigslist CEO Goes Off on CNN’s Amber Lyon

Craiglist CEO Jim Buckmaster wrote a feisty blog post aimed at CNN’s Amber Lyon. It begins:

I see you’ve now gotten around to requesting an interview with me or a company spokesperson, 90 days after you ambushed our namesake and founder, Craig Newmark, following his May 20th talk on veteran’s affairs and other issues unrelated to craigslist, at a conference in Washington.

You knew Craig was not in management or a company spokesperson, but setting CNN’s ethical code aside, you sidestepped company channels in favor of ambushing our semi-retired founder, complete with a misleading "set up" for your surprise questions. Now that CNN has aired your highly misleading piece dozens of times, mischaracterizing your stunt as a serious interview on this subject, and you’ve updated your "bio" to showcase this rare jewel of investigative journalism, you’re ready to try actually interviewing the company itself on this subject.

According to a New York Times piece, most people still decline to use location services. The article says these services (like Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places, etc.) are mainly being used by "young, technically adept urbanites." They cite Forrester Research data, claiming that 4% of Americans have tried location-based services, and 1% use them weekly.

Microsoft’s Hotmail now supports push email, calendar, and contacts with Exchange ActiveSync. Microsoft’s Aviraj Ajgekar calls this "another milestone fore Windows Live Services."

Google showed off some of the products of its "Googley Art Wall" contest, which asked its product management teams to design their own walls:

AOL’s MapQuest launched some new updates to its recent relaunch. These include a "pick your language" features, embedded maps, and "send to GPS".

Twitter announced Site Streams, a new feature on its Streaming API, which lets services receive real-time updates for a large number of users. It streams events like direct messages, mentions, follows, favorites, tweets, retweets, profile changes, and list changes.

Samsung announced that it has sold over a million Samsung Galaxy S smartphones in the U.S. in 45 days.

August 30, 2010
Booyah Taps Google Maps API, Places to Take MyTown International

Booyah announced today that it is taking MyTown international.

The company has launched support for MyTown (for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad) across Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. The company says this makes MyTown the first to support global check-ins utilizing the recently launched Places Web Service via the Google Maps API.

"Booyah is the premier mobile and social gaming company on top of the exploding location graph," said Booyah CEO Keith Lee. "Our launches in the UK, Australia and Canada are just the beginning of bringing real world gaming to players across the globe."

Places returns the 20 most popular places near a given location. MyTown has over 2.8 million users, according to the company.

Last week, Booyah launched check-ins for products in MyTown, which lets users use their iPhone camera to scan barcodes of products to unlock points and earn virtual goods, and "creating a game out of real life items." Lee called this "a holy grail for marketers."

August 5, 2010
Google Focusing On Check-In Services with Google Places API

Google is placing a great deal of emphasis on check-in services, with regards to Google Places. This could mean some interesting things for businesses.

"We have been delighted with the enthusiasm we have seen for the Places API, and the innovative ways in which developers would like to use it," says Google Maps API Product Manager Thor Mitchell. "We have seen applications that offer check-in to places and need to identify an individual place at which a user is currently located, applications looking to show a user Places around them, and applications looking to offer a search and browse experience for Places similar to that offered on Google Maps."

"We are going to focus initially on check-in applications," says Mitchell. "These are the applications that we feel the API currently caters to well, and we are excited to work with developers building these applications to understand their requirements, and ensure that we are offering them the best possible experience."

Google says it has been reaching out to developers who have expressed interest in building check-in apps using the Places API. This includes developers working on client apps for the Buzz API.

Check-in services are gaining a lot of attention, and are creating new and interesting opportunities for brick and mortar businesses that just weren’t available before. Combine that with the power of Google Maps and Google’s increasingly heavy push of Google Places, and this has the potential to be very powerful. With Google’s APIs, the consumers are going to have many more access points, particularly from their mobile devices.

It would also not be surprising if this was heavily tied to that "Google Me" project that has been speculated on so heavily in recent weeks.

Earlier this week, Google updated its Maps for Mobile on Android devices, making a Places icon available. This essentially turns Places into its own app for all intents and purposes.

July 30, 2010
Booyah Launches Check-Ins for Products in MyTown

Booyah, one of the companies gaining buzz in the check-in service space, has announced a new product check-in feature for its MyTown game/service.

With the feature, users can use their iPhone camera to scan barcodes of products to unlock points and earn virtual goods, as the company puts it, "creating a game out of real life items."

"We first made the location check-in fun," says Booyah CEO Keith Lee. "Now we’re making products fun. It adds a whole new layer on top of the MyTown experience."

"It’s a holy grail for marketers and brands to have their target audience actually hold their products in their hands," adds Lee. "It’s as close as you will get before point of sale. Not to mention that a consumer’s product check-in history is invaluable data."

This could make the whole check-in trend all the more appealing to businesses looking to sell their products. MyTown already boasts over two and a half million active users.

MyTown lets users "buy and own" their favorite real-life locations, and collect rent when other people check-in to their shops.

July 26, 2010
Foursquare Coming to a Search Engine Near You?

Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley says the company is in talks with "everyone" in the search space including Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, according to a report from the UK-based Telegraph.

How any of the search engines would integrate Foursquare data is anybody’s guess, but Crowley told the publication the company’s data "generates hugely interesting trends which would enrich search". The major search companies have offered no comments on the matter.

The geo-location space is only going to get more competitive with Twitter now offering its own version and Facebook expected to launch new location-based features anytime. It remains to be seen just how much of the market Foursquare will attract moving forward. That said, it is certainly in the forefront of this space at this point.

Last week, we looked at a survey from MerchantCircle, which found that awareness of services like Foursquare is growing rapidly among local merchants, but there is a pretty big gap between those using them (or planning to) for promotion and those who are not. Search engine integration would certainly give merchants something else to think about.

Foursquare recently announced the closing of a new $20m Series B round of funding with Union Square Ventures, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and new partner, Andreessen Horowitz.

How would you like to see Foursquare data integrated into search? Would you find it useful?

July 19, 2010
Foursquare Gains $20m, New Investor in Andreessen Horowitz

Foursquare has announced that it’s closed a new $20m Series B round of funding with Union Square Ventures, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and new partner, Andreessen Horowitz.

"The two big names behind Andreessen Horowitz – Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz – are each legends in Silicon Valley," says Foursquare Founder and CEO Dennis Crowley. "They know better than anyone how to transform startups into successful organizations. As we continue to rapidly expand to take advantage of the opportunities in front of us, Ben and Marc’s expertise in growing companies will be invaluable."

Horowitz says on his blog that his company invested in Foursquare for three main reasons: a great Founder/CEO, a killer product, and a gigantic market.

There’s no question that the market for what Foursquare offers is heating up. However, so is the competition. Clearly Foursquare is leading the way right now, at least in name recognition and press coverage, but the market is going to continue to be flooded with various check-in offerings, and it may be hard for one service to truly dominate.

Also consider that Twitter now has its Places feature in place, and Facebook will be coming out with its own location features any time. It will be interesting to see how these impact the future of services like Foursquare.

June 30, 2010