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| language = [[English language|English]], [[German language|German]], [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]]
| language = [[English language|English]], [[German language|German]], [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]]
| advertising =
| advertising =
| alexa = {{increase}} 581<ref name=Alexa>{{cite web|title=Alexa traffic rank|url=http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/foursquare.com|publisher=Alexa Internet, Inc.|accessdate=4 June 2011|month=June|year=2011}}</ref>
| alexa = {{decrease}} 623<ref name=Alexa>{{cite web|title=Alexa traffic rank|url=http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/foursquare.com|publisher=Alexa Internet, Inc.|accessdate=27 June 2011|month=June|year=2011}}</ref>
| num_users = 10 million<ref name="vator">{{cite news | first = | last = | title = foursquare: about | date = 2011-04 | url = https://foursquare.com/about | work = [[foursquare]] | accessdate = 2011-05-14}}</ref>
| num_users = 10 million<ref name="vator">{{cite news | first = | last = | title = foursquare: about | date = 2011-04 | url = https://foursquare.com/about | work = [[foursquare]] | accessdate = 2011-05-14}}</ref>
| website_type = [[Social Networking]]
| website_type = [[Social Networking]]

Revision as of 08:40, 27 June 2011

Foursquare Labs, Inc.
Type of businessPrivate
Type of site
Social Networking
Available inEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese
FoundedNew York City, New York, USA
Headquarters
New York City, New York
,
United States
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s)Dennis Crowley
Naveen Selvadurai
Key peopleDennis Crowley, Co-Founder, CEO
Naveen Selvadurai, Co-Founder
Employees50+
URLfoursquare.com
RegistrationRequired
Users10 million[1]
LaunchedMarch 11, 2009
Current statusActive

foursquare is a location-based social networking website based on software for mobile devices. This service is available to users with GPS-enabled mobile devices such as smartphones. Users "check-in" at venues using a mobile website, text messaging or a device-specific application by running the application and selecting from a list of venues that the application locates nearby.[3] Each check-in awards the user points and sometimes "badges".

The service was created in 2009 by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai. Crowley had previously founded the similar project Dodgeball as his graduate thesis project in the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University. Google bought Dodgeball in 2005 and shut it down in 2009, replacing it with Google Latitude. Dodgeball user interactions were based on SMS technology, rather than an application.[4]

Foursquare is the second iteration of the same idea, that people can use mobile devices to interact with their environment. As of April 2011, the company reported it had 8 million registered users.[5] As of June 2011, the company reported it had 10 million registered users.[6] The company will pass 750 million check-ins before end of June 2011, with average users about 3 million check-ins per day. 50 percent users came from outside US and also 50 percent of users were male.[7]

Features

Showing nearby venues on the foursquare Andoid application.
Showing nearby venues on the foursquare Android application.

Foursquare is a web and mobile application that allows registered users to connect with friends and update their location. Points are awarded for "checking in" at venues. Users can choose to have their check-ins posted on their accounts on Twitter, Facebook, or both. In version 1.3 of their iPhone application, foursquare enabled push-notification of friend updates, which they call "Pings". Users can also earn badges by checking in at locations with certain tags, for check-in frequency, or for other patterns such as time of check-in.[8] The company has stated that users will be able to add their own custom badges to the site in the future.[citation needed]

Users can create a "To Do" list for their private use and add "Tips" to venues that other users can read, which serve as suggestions for great things to do, see or eat at the location.[9]

Mayorship

If a user has checked-in to a venue on more days (meaning only one check-in per day qualifies for calculating mayorship) than anyone else in the past 60 days, the check-ins are valid under foursquare's time and distance protocols, and they have a profile photo, they will be crowned "Mayor" of that venue, until someone else earns the title by checking in more times than the previous mayor.[10] On August 26, 2010, foursquare rolled out a new feature which notifies users of the number of days left before he or she is crowned "Mayor". When a user "checks in" to a venue on Foursquare via a mobile app, if he or she is within 10 check-ins of becoming the mayor, foursquare alerts the user of the days left before becoming mayor on the check-in confirmation screen.[11]

Badges

Badges are earned by checking into various venues. Some cities have city-specific badges that can only be earned in a specific city. Foursquare has, however, changed the way they handle badges, and now when a user gains a badge, he or she has the same badges across all cities. Once a badge is earned by a player, it will remain on that user's profile indefinitely.

The foursquare staff are very secretive about how to unlock many badges. There are a handful of introductory badges that are earned as milestones in usage. Some badges are tied to venue "tags" and the badge earned depends on the tags applied to the venue.[12] Other badges may be specific to a city, venue, event, or date. Some badges use identical icons, but are earned differently. There are a few badges that are named similarly, but applied differently, specifically Far Far Away, Trifecta, and I'm on a Boat. There is no official foursquare badge list available from foursquare.com, yet a few start up companies have tried to keep up-to-date the lists.

On September 23, 2010, foursquare announced that users can now earn badges for completing tasks as well as checking in.[13] On October 22, 2010, astronaut Douglas H. Wheelock unlocked the NASA Explorer badge by checking into Foursquare from the International Space Station.[14][15]

Icon Name Badge Message How to activate
Newbie Congrats on your first check-in! Acquired on first check-in
Adventurer You’ve checked into 10 different venues! Check into 10 different venues
Explorer You’ve checked into 25 different venues! Check into 25 different venues
Superstar You’ve checked into 50 different venues! Check into 50 venues

Superuser status

The service provides three levels of "Superuser status" (which is not to be confused with the "Super User" badge). Superuser status is conferred on users who have been selected by Foursquare for their helpful contributions to the community.[16]

  • Superuser level 1 can edit venue info (address, cross street, phone, Twitter names, map pin location), mark places as "closed", and let Foursquare know about duplicate venues.
  • Superuser level 2 can edit venues, merge duplicate venue listings, adjust the latitude and longitude of a venue, remove tags, and add venue categories for any venue.
  • Superuser level 3 adds the ability to create and remove venue aliases, as well as access a "global queue" for the various SU tools, such as merge requests, mislocated venues, and suggested address changes; lower level SUs can only access the pending requests in the city they're currently listed as being in.

Growth

Foursquare started out in 2009 with limited availability in only 100 worldwide metro areas.[17] In January 2010, foursquare changed their location model to allow check-ins from any location worldwide.[18] At February 21, 2011 Foursquare has just crossed 7 million users IDs and it means 7 million registered users will hit in the coming week.[19]

Devices

Foursquare currently has iPhone, Symbian, Android, webOS, Windows Phone 7 and BlackBerry applications.[20] A Maemo application is in early development stage and is not featured on the foursquare website.[21] Users with Symbian phones and Pocket PCs (Windows Mobile touchscreen) can also use foursquare via Waze, which is also available for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry.[22] Also, there's another application for Symbian users, named "Sym4Square", which is similar to the application for Android, BlackBerry, and iPhone.[23] Users may also use their mobile browsers to access foursquare mobile, but feature phone users must search for venues manually instead of using GPS that PDA applications can use.[24]

Foursquare Day

Foursquare Day (4sqDay) is a global event launched in 2010 in Tampa, FL.[25] The event is held every April 16 (April being the 4th month and the 16th being equal to four squared).[26][27] The official site is: 4sqday.com. Some cities have made official proclamations of April 16 being Foursquare Day (Atlanta, Georgia; Austin, Texas; Cincinnati, Ohio; Corpus Christi, Texas; Gaithersburg, Maryland; Indianapolis, Indiana; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Kennesaw, Georgia; Manchester, New Hampshire; Miami, Florida; New York City; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Seattle, Washington; Miami, Florida; Victoria, Canada; Toronto, Canada; Ramat-Hasharon, Israel)[28][29][30]

Foursquare 2.0

In September 2010 foursquare announced version 2.0 of its check-in app which helps to direct users to new locations and activities, rather than just sharing their location with friends. The list of personal list of places and activities, called to-dos, has been separated from the general advice from other users section called "tips". Foursquare has also created a button that will add any location in the app to a user's to-do list, and the app will now remind the user when there are to-do items nearby. Third party sites such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Zagat have added an "Add to My foursquare" button, which will add the location to the user's to-do list.[31]

Foursquare 3.0

Foursquare 3.0 was released for Android and iPhone users on the evening of March 8, 2011. There exists a third party Windows Phone 7 client[32] that implements these v3.0 features.

Funding

Foursquare is principally funded by Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. The company raised $1.35 million in its Series A and $20 million in its Series B round.[33][34] On June 24, 2011 Foursquare raised $50 million on a $600 million valuation.[35]

Partnerships

In February 2010, the company entered into new commercial partnerships with Zagat, Bravo, Conde Nast, The New York Times and several other firms to offer tips, specials and new badges to followers.[36][37][38]

Foursquare acknowledged a grass-roots effort that started in Tampa, Florida [39] by declaring April 16 as a "Foursquare Day".[40][41]

Awards

  • In 2010, foursquare was named a runner-up in the T3 Gadget Awards 2010 as the App of the Year.[42]
  • In August 2010, the company was a finalist in Lead411's New York City Hot 125.[43]
  • In April 2010, foursquare received a Webby Award as one of the best mobile social networks.[44]
  • In March 2010, Foursquare was nominated for the 13th annual SXSW Web Awards in the Mobile Category.[45]
  • Foursquare was named a 2011 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum in the Information Technologies and New Media category.[46]
  • In January 2011, foursquare was named Best Location Based Service in the TechCrunch Crunchies 2010.[47]

Privacy

In February 2010, a site known as Please Rob Me was launched.[48] Please Rob Me scrapes data from public Twitter messages that have been pushed through Foursquare.[48] The purpose of the site is to raise awareness about revealing too much information.[48]

In 2010, white hat hacker Jesper Andersen discovered a vulnerability on foursquare that raised privacy concerns.[49][50] Foursquare's location pages display a grid of 50 pictures that is generated randomly, regardless of their privacy settings.[49] Whenever a user "checks-in" at that location, their picture is generated on that location page, even if they only want their friends to know where they are.[49] Andersen then crafted a script that collected check-in information.[49] It is estimated that Andersen collected around 875,000 check-ins.[49] Andersen contacted foursquare about the vulnerability, and foursquare responded by fixing their privacy settings.[50]

Also in 2010, issues arose for users who use Twitter to check in at locations, which are connected to Foursquare, and specifically for those who have not disabled the option that shows when you are at a certain place – raising the issue of "who are you with" and "who are you not with" on Foursquare. These users have no control whether or not someone else announces their location. An example of this would be: Bob Smith checks in on Foursquare and sends it to Twitter. “I am at Starbucks - Santa Clara (link to map)” shows up on Twitter. Also, pretend that I’m friends with Bob Smith and I happened to check in even hours before he did, but just haven’t checked in anywhere else yet to clear my history. “I am at Starbucks - Santa Clara (link to map) w/@mediaphyter” shows up in Bob’s tweets. This happens even if I personally choose not to send my check-ins to Twitter. This creates two problems. One, my privacy is innocently compromised by Bob. Two, it appears I am hanging out with Bob when really, I only checked in a handful of hours ago to grab a quick latte. Also, to continue picking on Bob Smith, if he ousts me as mayor of that Starbucks and has it set to communicate such domination to Twitter, his feed now sees my name as someone who does frequent that particular Starbucks. This can be avoided if people a) don’t connect their Twitter names to their Foursquare profiles or b) don’t allow themselves to be listed as checked in at any particular place. [51]

The FTC is currently urging the White House to increase Internet privacy measures, especially for mobile devices and social networks, stating that federal laws have not kept up with the applications to ensure that personal information isn’t being improperly used. [52]

Further discussion is currently going on with the FTC and the type of information that could be tracked online. According to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, said several companies such as Microsoft and Mozilla have done a good job of putting tools on their browsers to allow users to voluntarily opt out of being tracked on the Web. But he said that without “baseline privacy protections” across the Web industry, consumers will face a patchwork of privacy policies that could differ Web site by Web site. Also, “Do Not Track is no longer just a concept. It is becoming a reality,” Leibowitz said at the hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee. “An effective Do Not Track system would go beyond simply opting consumers out of receiving targeted advertisements. It would opt them out of having their behavior tracked online.” This can be an issue with the future of Foursquare, as well as other social networking website devices that track users information. [52]

In response to the privacy issues regarding social networking sites, Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai states that "Users decide if they want to push to Twitter or Facebook, over what information they want to share and send" and "There is a lot of misunderstanding about location based services. On Foursquare, if you don’t want to people to know you are on a date or with a friend at a certain place, then you don’t have to let people know. You don’t check in." Selvadurai also states that Foursquare does not passively track users, which means a user has to actively check in to let people know where they are. In the future, Foursquare also does not plan on being a passive tracking, using GPS and other technology to constantly find location of users.[53]

Foursquare updated their privacy policy on Jan 12, 2011. It can be found on their website.[54]

Lawsuit

Mobile Commerce Framework Inc filed a lawsuit against Foursquare on March 10, 2011, for infringing on their US Patent No. 7,693,752.[55]

References

  1. ^ "foursquare: about". foursquare. 2011-04. Retrieved 2011-05-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ "Alexa traffic rank". Alexa Internet, Inc. 2011. Retrieved 27 June 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  3. ^ Kincaid, Jason (March 18, 2009). "SXSW: Foursquare Scores Despite Its Flaws - washingtonpost.com". The Washington Post. Washington DC: WPC. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved March 16, 2011.
  4. ^ Gillmor, Steve (2011 [last update]). "dodgeball.com officially Google'd". techcrunch.com. Retrieved 16 March 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
  5. ^ "Foursquare CEO on the future of mobile". USA Today. 2011-03-22.
  6. ^ Sarah Lacy. "Foursquare Closes $50M at a $600M Valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 24 June 2011.
  7. ^ http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/20/foursquare-now-officially-at-10-million-users/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29
  8. ^ "Foursqure Badges Help Page". Foursquare.com. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
  9. ^ New York Times - Bits Blog: "Foursquare Seeks to Turn Nightlife Into a Game"
  10. ^ "Foursquare Help Page". Foursquare.com. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
  11. ^ "Foursquare Starts Emphasizing "Days" Rather Than "Check-Ins" With Mayor Countdowns". TechCrunch.com. August 26, 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-13.
  12. ^ Lowensohn, Josh (2009-04-09). "Foursquare co-creator on privacy, Easter eggs". News.cnet.com. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  13. ^ Indvik, Lauren. "Earn Badges on Foursquare, No Checkins required". Retrieved 23 September 2010.
  14. ^ "foursquare". foursquare. 2010-10-22. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  15. ^ Jason Kincaid Oct 22, 2010 (2010-10-22). "Houston, We've Had A Check-In: NASA Astronaut Just Used Foursquare From Space". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2011-04-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  16. ^ "What is a Superuser?". Aboutfoursquare.com. 2010-04-22. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  17. ^ Jennifer Van Grove (2009-11-19). "Foursquare Goes Global With Launch in 50 New Cities". Mashable.com. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
  18. ^ Jan 8th Fri. "Foursquare. Everywhere". Foursquare.tumblr.com. Retrieved 2010-03-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ Leena Rao Feb 21, 2011 (2011-02-21). "Foursquare Closing In On 7 Million Users". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2011-04-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  20. ^ foursquare. "Foursquare Twitter Page". Twitter.com. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
  21. ^ thenokiablog (2010-03-17). "Foursquare App for Nokia N900". thenokiablog.com. Retrieved 2010-04-08.
  22. ^ "Way to go". Waze. 2010-04-19. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
  23. ^ "Sym4Square, a Foursquare application for Symbian users".
  24. ^ "foursquare mobile". foursquare. 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
  25. ^ "Celebrate Foursquare Day on the 16th: Be there or be square". News.medill.northwestern.edu. 2011-04-14. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  26. ^ Charles McMahon (2011-04-14). "What is Foursquare Day? Find out in Portsmouth on Saturday". SeacoastOnline.com. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  27. ^ "Check in and check it out: Foursquare Day Toronto, 2011 | Posted Toronto | National Post". News.nationalpost.com. 2011-04-13. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  28. ^ "Proclamations « Foursquare Day". Blog.4sqday.com. 2011-02-23. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  29. ^ "Foursquare Day 2011 Becomes Official With Mayor Proclamations". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  30. ^ April 14, 2011 by Jennifer Van Grove 34 (2011-04-14). "New York Mayor Proclaims April 16 Foursquare Day". Mashable.com. Retrieved 2011-04-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  31. ^ MG Siegler (September 20, 2010). "Foursquare 2.0 Goes Beyond The Check-In — By Reshuffling Old Features". TechCrunch.com. TechCrunch. Retrieved September 20, 2010.
  32. ^ 4th & Mayor, Windows Phone 7 Foursquare client implementing v3.0 features.
  33. ^ Ante, Spencer E. (2010-06-28). "Foursquare Locates New Funds to Expand". The Wall Street Journal.
  34. ^ Dan Frommer (2009-09-04). "Foursquare Raises $1.35 Million, Led By Union Square Ventures". Businessinsider.com. Retrieved 2011-04-21. {{cite web}}: Text "15" ignored (help); Text "3,971" ignored (help); Text "Sep. 4, 2009, 4:35 PM" ignored (help)
  35. ^ Sarah Lacy. "Foursquare Closes $50M at a $600M Valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 24 June 2011.
  36. ^ Keath, Jason (2010-06-01). "Examples of Brands Partnering with Foursquare for Marketing - Social Fresh". socialfresh.com. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
  37. ^ Wortham, Jenna (2010-02-09). "Foursquare Signs a Deal With Zagat - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com". Bits.blogs.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
  38. ^ Leena Rao Feb 12, 2010 (2010-02-12). "Foursquare Gets Lucky (Magazine) And A Deal With Conde Nast". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved 2011-04-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  39. ^ Hayes, Stephanie (2010-04-03), "Tampa man dreams up Foursquare Day", St. Petersburg Times, retrieved 2010-04-03
  40. ^ foursquare. "Foursquare Twitter Page". Twitter.com. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  41. ^ foursquare. "Foursquare Day Page". Facebook.com. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  42. ^ "App of the Year: FourSquare". Awards.t3.com. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  43. ^ "New York City Hot 125". Lead411.com. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  44. ^ "Webby Award Nods Honor Twitter, foursquare, Funny or Die". Appscout.com. 2010-04-13. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  45. ^ "Gowalla beats out Foursquare at the SXSW awards". Tech.blorge.com. 2010-03-15. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  46. ^ Dresser, Guy (2010-11-24). "Technology Pioneers 2011: Information Technologies and New Media". Weforum.org. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  47. ^ "Crunchies Winners 2010". Crunchies2010.techcrunch.com. 2011-01-26. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
  48. ^ a b c McCarthy, Caroline (2010-02-17). "The dark side of geo: PleaseRobMe.com". CNET.com. Retrieved 2010-10-12.
  49. ^ a b c d e Singal, Ryan (2010-06-16). "White Hat Uses Foursquare Privacy Hole to Capture 875K Check-Ins". Wired News. Retrieved 2010-10-12.
  50. ^ a b Dugdale, Addy (2010-07-01). "Foursquare Checks in to Almighty Security Row, Loyalty to Users Questioned". Fast Company. Retrieved 2010-10-12.
  51. ^ Leggio, Jennifer (2010-03-25). "Foursquare's privacy loopholes". ZDNet US Edition. Retrieved 2011-04-26.
  52. ^ a b Kang, Cecilia (2011-03-16). "FTC, White House urge Internet privacy measures". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2011-04-12.
  53. ^ Kang, Cecilia (2011-04-08). "Foursquare founder Selvadurai talks about privacy, future". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2011-04-12.
  54. ^ "Foursquare Labs, Inc. Privacy Policy:". Retrieved 2011-04-12.
  55. ^ "Mobile Commerce Framework, Inc. v. Foursquare Labs, Inc". Retrieved March 11, 2011.

.[1] Retrieved 2011-04-12.

  1. ^ [1], Foursquare Privacy Policy.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Foursquare_City_Guide&oldid=436467571"