The Next Age Of Foursquare Begins Today

By Ellis Hamburger at The Verge:  


In mid-May, Foursquare decided to split itself in two. The first half is Swarm, an app that lets you find friends nearby and check in. The second half is the forthcoming Foursquare 8.0, a complete redesign of the company’s existing app that has until now been kept secret. It's launching in just a few weeks. In the words of CEO Dennis Crowley, the new Foursquare is the app he always wanted to build — an exploration app unhindered by the check-ins that previously held center stage. Now we’re finally getting to see how it looks.

The new Foursquare swaps the service’s trademark green for pink ("watermelon"), and ditches its famous bouncing-ball logo for a vibrant "F" flag. Foursquare’s new wordmark is bold and grown-up instead of a playful doodle. The company looks nothing like before, and that’s the point. Battling the world’s preconceptions about the company is seemingly just as important as battling Yelp and Google.

"The check-in story has dominated the brand and user experience," says Crowley. "We’d hear people say ‘I had no idea I could use this app to search for places.’" So, the new Foursquare puts personalization front and center. Every piece of the new app that’s customized just for you, like your favorite foods served at nearby places, is accentuated in pink. Crowley calls Foursquare’s hyper-contextual recommendations "superpowers," a theme that has become increasingly prominent within the company in recent years. Crowley repeats again and again that Foursquare should help you see through walls and find the best places instantly in a city across the world.


In early brainstorming sessions, the company tried globes, magnifying glasses, and other symbols of exploration to represent the company. More than twenty-five different Foursquare icons rotated across the home screens of the company’s many employees, a series of A/B tests to see what felt right. But eventually, the company rallied around Crowley’s "super" vision. The new Foursquare icon’s blocky pink "F" is Crowley’s superhero emblem as much as it is a flag, or a location pin. Instead of saving the world, however, Crowley’s app might help you find the best soba in SoHo.

Foursquare hopes that its new design will make the service’s strengths more obvious, and provide more room for experimentation. "The existing version of Foursquare didn’t have enough room for us to flex all the things we wanted to do," says Crowley. "There’s been so much stuff locked up in admin tools and insider Foursquare views. Adding a 'most popular this month' section would’ve been awesome, but where are you gonna put it?" As part of today’s announcement, Foursquare is also teasing a few features of its new app, one of which is a Billboard-style "Most Popular" module that lets users see which places nearby are hottest right now. Thanks to its users who still check in, Foursquare is perhaps the only company that can track up and coming places with so much precision. But even without check-ins, Crowley argues, Foursquare’s unique "Pilgrim" location engine can pin you down at specific places better than any other app.

While many of Swarm’s user reviews have been disappointing — the app holds a 1.5 star rating in the App Store as of this writing — COO Jeff Glueck says that current users are checking in more than ever. "People are using Foursquare and Swarm better," he says. "They check in more often on Swarm according to our data, and are using Foursquare more often to explore. We’re seeing more Explore queries once people migrated." Glueck emphasizes that it’s a very vocal minority of Foursquare users who have opposed the company’s changes, which not only moved check-ins out of Foursquare but largely removed mayorships and the app’s points system for competing with friends for check-ins. Foursquare has since added back some of these features to Swarm.

Foursquare admits that it could’ve managed expectations a bit better, and timed the two app launches closer together so users weren’t confused. "It wasn’t a mistake. There is no prior arc with someone trying to do an unbundling like this before," says Crowley, "but I don’t think there’s any real perfect way to do it." In the next few weeks, the company plans to finish pushing all of its users to Swarm before completely removing the check-in from Foursquare once and for all. Another big change it will have to communicate is that Foursquare and Swarm will soon contain two separate friends lists. Foursquare will let you follow people and tastemakers you like, while Swarm will let you pick who you want to share your general location with, which is likely a much smaller group. This distinction perfectly exemplifies why Foursquare struggled as an app containing two often-separate utilities.

One year ago, rumors swirled that morale at Foursquare had hit a new low. The company’s two focuses, check-ins and local recommendations, seemed interminably at odds. Only 5 percent of its users did both when they opened Foursquare each time. Today, Foursquare is getting the fresh start it always wanted — a chance to look different, and an opportunity to take on not one but two important new roles in peoples’ lives. Crowley and co. are betting that with their two new apps, people will finally understand exactly what Foursquare is for.

Which Social Media Platform Is Best for Your Business?

By Luke Chitwood at TNW:

It is commonly suggested that to increase your brand presence, you need to be active on all forms of social media. While that may be true, unless your company has a dedicated social media coordinator, finding the time to maintain every platform out there can be extremely time consuming.

If your company is just starting out on the Web and need to pick a few social media networks to rule over, here is our guide to choosing the best platform(s) for your business, and how to make the most out of them.


1. Twitter

Who should use it: Everyone – from individuals to the largest multinational corporations

What to share: Start, join, and lead conversations; interact directly with brands and customers

Post frequency: Multiple times per day

Twitter is the dominant democracy of the social-sharing economy. Relevancy, personality and brevity are the keys to making your voice heard.

Useful tools: Buffer lets you stockpile and schedule content in advance. Tools like this allow for posting around-the-clock, increasing the likelihood of snagging followers beyond your country or time zone without being working 24/7.

It’s a guarantee by this point that a conversation relevant to your industry or business is occurring on Twitter. The only question: are you part of it?



2. Instagram

Who should use it: Lifestyle, food, fashion, personalities and luxury brands

What to share: Share visual content, including short videos (less than 15 seconds)

Post frequency: Once a day

Instagram invites brands with visual content into their customers’ zone-out time. Create and post content accordingly.

You’ll want to experiment with your own userbase and followers, but it’s likely that the best time to target your posts will be to get to your audience’s eyes during their commutes, nights, and weekends.

Useful tools: While hashtags are clickable and useful for search purposes, links in comments and captions are not.

Instead, use the integrated sharing functions for Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter to repurpose your Instagram posts for more shareable media. Include a relevant hashtag to become more discoverable on Instagram and to track engagement across sites where you share the content.

Additionally, Followgram is a great tool for tracking your stats on the most liked and commented posts, along with top tags and locations.



3. LinkedIn

Who should use it: Businesses (especially B2B service providers), Recruiters and Job-Seekers

What to share: Job-postings, company descriptions, employer/employee research

Post frequency: Two to four times a week

LinkedIn is the online analog to old fashioned networking. People – and connections to people – are everything

Keep a company description and profile page mindful of keyword SEO, but your network of employees and contacts is your most valuable (and potentially damaging) content on LinkedIn. Make sure people in your organization are appropriate, professional and on-brand. There’s nowhere online where employers and employees are more intimately linked.

Company seeking clients and individuals seeking employment should grow their LinkedIn networks by adding as many real connections as possible. Use your second and third-degree connections to request personal introductions (when reasonable), and weed out the Internet’s infinity of companies and applications, focusing on opportunities where you have some real connection.

Top tip: LinkedIn shares more about your own electronic creeping than any other network. Paid users can see who’s viewing their profiles.

If you’re researching a competitor or doing some preliminary job-seeking you’d rather your boss didn’t know about, try a Google search specifically for the LinkedIn page you want to see.



4. Facebook

Who should use it: Everyone and their grandmas (literally)

What to share: All types of online content, events, ads

Post frequency: Once or twice a day

Consider advertising or paying to promote your page on Facebook, but don’t make your brand’s Facebook page itself look like an advertisement. Inspire conversations and shares – and be sure to ask questions.

Of all social networks, Facebook is best equipped to linearly share responses to a post asking a question or sparking conversation. Answers then appear in friends of your respondents, spreading the conversation.

Facebook offers personal connection and an enjoyable distraction amidst the work day, but use typically peaks outside of work hours. There’s no shortage of options for analyzing Facebook data. Track the success of your content by date and time to hone in on the best times for engaging your audience.

Useful tools: URL shortener Bitly does more than just shrink down links. Each time you convert a link, Bitly offers stats on clicks generated from that specific link, making it helpful to see how much traffic is brought directly from sharing to Facebook.

5. Google+

Who should use it: Brands already on the other major social networks, B2B networking, bloggers

What to share: More formal and professional than Facebook; Hashtags have major search value

Post frequency: Once or twice a day

As Google’s proposed alternative to Facebook, keywords and search engine optimization are central to the appeal of Google+. Link often to content on your own website to direct this search boost where you want it most.

Useful tools: Bloggers, set up Google Authorship to have your Google+ profile follow your content from across the Web in search results. More than any particular feature of Google+, users are enticed by integration with Google’s other products.

Case in point? Comments on this article’s next social network now link to Google+ accounts.



6. YouTube

Who should use it: Brands with video content and ads, anyone giving explanations or sharing expertise

What to share: Short (less than 1.5 minutes) video content

Post frequency: Once or twice a week

Google treats its own well, and YouTube is the prime example of this fact. YouTube videos feature prominently in Google search results.

Keep this in mind when naming and describing videos, and direct people looking for insight or explanations within your industry topics to your brand’s page.

Useful tools: A subscription widget or link to your website can help convert single views into long-term influence.



7. Pinterest

Who should use it: Fashion, food, design, travel and anything DIY; audience skews female by 4:1

What to share: Creative, visual content

Post frequency: Multiple times per day

Users pin and re-pin posts to Pinterest Boards, which naturally push the content on Pinterest into categories. This makes easily-categorized content most apt for sharing, and wisely-chosen keywords essential to successful post captions.

Pinterest differs from other popular search engines in heavily favoring recent content. Pinning and re-pinning frequently is necessary to appear within current results for a given search term, regardless of how popular your content is.

Top tip: That stunning visual content on Pinterest? Undoubtedly the hard work of a designer, photographer or videographer. Technically, you’re only supposed to pin content you own or that’s within the public domain. Be sure to attribute your pins appropriately.



8. Yelp and/or Foursquare

Who should use it: B2C companies, brick-and-mortar outlets (especially stores, restaurants, and travel/tourism related), reviewers and bloggers

What to share: Location-based business search and reviews

Post frequency: Before your physical business opens and whenever information changes. Otherwise, at least weekly.

Share details about your business on an official company profile page. Monitor customer feedback related to your business, and respond to concerns raised in reviews. Consider it free promotion and advertisement (although paid promotions are also available).

Keep your information updated, and pay attention to keywords and SEO in crafting descriptions – Yelp listings in particular feature prominently in Google searches for local businesses.

On the consumer side of these B2C networks, reviewers and bloggers can use Yelp and Foursquare to grow their following. You can’t post a link in a review (Yelp with flag those and potentially suspend your profile), but you can develop a reputation for reliable reviews.

Top tip: Both Yelp and Foursquare users tend to glance, so it’s important to get as many high numbered ratings as possible to gain a positive first impression. Add a link to your blog or personal website under the profile section to capture additional readership.

Foursquare Cuts $15M Deal with Microsoft

Foursquare is announcing that it has received $15 million in funding as a result of a partnership with Microsoft. The deal will see Foursquare contributing to the Bing platform’s location and context layers on both Windows 8 and Windows Phone.

The funding will be rolled into Foursquare’s previous raise of $35 million in December, bringing the total to $50 million. In addition, a licensing deal has been struck for the location data, but the financial terms of that haven’t been disclosed.

This is not a simple licensing deal for Foursquare’s location data. Instead, Microsoft will be getting the data and much deeper access to its contextual layers than any third party via Foursquare’s API. Holger Luedorf, Foursquare’s head of business development, tells me that this is a multi-year agreement that includes both data and technical components that will integrate with Microsoft’s Bing platform on both Windows 8 and Windows Phone.

Foursquare will expose more functionality to Microsoft’s team than any other platform has access to. Luedorf says this includes Foursquare’s location targeting system that utilizes phone sensor data to pinpoint user locations and points of interest.



Read the full story >>

20 Social Apps That Got Us Talking in 2013

By Ken Yeung at The Next Web: 

As we wind down the year, The Next Web compiled a list of some of the social apps that have made some significant moves in 2013. How did we qualify what a social app was? In our mind, it was a service that had a core functionality that enabled users to interact and engage with other people, either online or offline.


- Snapchat

Perhaps one of the apps that made the most headlines this year, Snapchat ends this year with a rather large valuation, coming off reports that the company entertained acquisition talks with Facebook. It was said that the social networking company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg had sought to purchase the ephemeral messaging service for north of $3 billion.

Snapchat functions as a messaging service, but in an “ephemeral” way. Messages can be sent to friends, but will only be stored momentarily — up to 10 seconds, in fact. Afterwards, they disappears from existence.

In February, Snapchat launched video messaging for its Android app. It then unveiled a new service specifically aimed at kids on iOS to help it expand its user base. The company has certainly been busy trying to justify its growing valuation. This summer, it said that 350 million messages were sent through the service each day.

Of course, let’s not forget that Snapchat recently hired away Instagram’s head of business to be its Chief Operating Officer, a sign that the startup is looking to stay independent and may help it to begin monetize its service. Will the new ‘replay’ feature play a role here?

➤ Snapchat for iOS | Android


- WhatsApp

WhatsApp recently announced that it has more than 400 million monthly active users, giving it an extra leg up in the mobile messaging battle. Available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone, and Nokia Symbian devices, the service has certainly been active both in the US and around the world. It ended 2012 saying that it processed 18 billion messages on the last day of the year alone, but found itself on the wrong side of the law when Canadian and Dutch authorities claimed WhatsApp violated international privacy laws.

In 2013, more activity took place on the mobile messaging service — in June, it hit a new milestone when it processed 27 billion messages in just one day.

➤ WhatsApp for iOS | Android | BlackBerry | Windows Phone | Nokia Symbian


- Line

Another messaging app that has made news in 2013, Line has been expanding rapidly around the world, but hasn’t quite made it to the United States. In November, it passed 300 million registered users and is known for its stickers, another popular thing of 2013.

Line’s stickers feature has become so popular that it has generated $188 million in gross revenue in Q3 2013, alongside other in-app purchases with its ‘connected’ games. In August, the company said that it makes over $10 million per month just from stickers.

With such a booming business, there are even reports that suggest Line is preparing for a US or Japanese IPO soon that could be worth up to $28 billion.

This week, the company revealed that it would be introducing video ads into its product, but would pay users to watch them through its Line Coins payment system.

In a fit of philanthropy, the mobile messaging service announced this week that it had raised $500,000 to help benefit victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines through the sale of ‘charitable’ stickers.

➤ Line for iOS | Android | BlackBerry | Windows Phone | Nokia Symbian


- Google+

Social networks have also been busy this year. Google+ has remained active, now with 17 comments. It has also become a hub for photos, something that Google has exploited with new services such as releasing an improved, Snapseed-powered editing tools, the release of Auto Awesome, and more.

Other updates to Google+’s iOS and Android app include photo sharing, auto ‘Locations’ updates, unified search, and other features.

As Google+ has become a haven for photographers, the company has been making significant changes, including new filters, better profiles, improved user flows, and more.

➤ Google+ for iOS | Android


- Foursquare

Yes, people still do use Foursquare and its seen a bit of a resurgence in 2013. In fact, just this week it raised $35 million in a Series D round. Although still fundamentally a location-based service, Foursquare has evolved its product so that it’s not about the check-in, but more about local recommendations and proactive learning.

Years ago, users were obsessed with checking into a location in order to earn badges or become the “mayor”. Now the app gives you smart recommendations based on friends’ data, and in 2013, the company began giving relevant, location-based information and tips to users, using push notifications (even for users who rarely – or never – actually open the app itself).

This year, the company also opened up its self-service ad platform to small businesses. With this feature, any company can pay to have a personalized promotion appear in a user’s feed in an attempt to garner more business. App users can also parse through 43 million menu items from more than 500,000 restaurants now with an improved Explore option.

In August, Foursquare released a new app to bring the location service to Windows Phone 8 devices.

➤ Foursquare for iOS | Android | Windows Phone


- Vine

In its inaugural year of existence, Vine has been a big player in helping Twitter move away from being just a text-based service to one expanding into other media. The company first launched its six-second video app in January before quickly being acquired by Twitter. Soon after, Vine quickly added Web embeds, Android and Kindle Fire versions, the ability to edit videos and save multiple drafts, and just recently added vanity URLs ahead of future Web-based user profiles.

This video app has also been at the top of Apple’s App Store charts earlier this year for free and social apps and counts more than 13 million users on its platform.

➤ Vine for iOS | Android | Windows Phone


- Waze

Crowdsourced traffic management app Waze hit it big time when it was acquired by Google earlier this year for a reported $1.3 billion. Before then, there was speculation that Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook were all in contention to grab the company.

The Israeli-based startup joins Google as part of its Maps team and brings with it the 50 million users that have signed up to help tell others where there are traffic delays.

➤ Waze for iOS | Android | Windows Phone


- Instagram

The photo-taking and sharing app made some big updates in 2013, including the addition of 15-second video technology and the launch of a pseudo-Snapchat-like feature it called Direct. In addition, Instagram began solidifying its monetization strategy by launching sponsored ads directly into users’ feeds.

The company’s ad product is still in its early stages, but Instagram says early testing shows “promising” results across various metrics like ad recall, awareness, and reach.

➤ Instagram for iOS | Android


- QuizUp

A popular game this year, QuizUp launched on the iPhone to give players countless hours of entertainment by participating in trivia games against their friends or random people. Created by Plain Vanilla Games, there are more than 100,000 questions across 300 categories. It still has far to go before it gets to the level of King’s Candy Crush, but it certainly has helped to provide countless hours of time drain.

It hasn’t all been good news for Plain Vanilla Games — in November, it was reported that QuizUp had privacy and security issues. It was said that the app was believed to be sending user data in plain text and even deceiving players, allowing others to exploit a weakness and cheat. In response, the company said that third-party server code had been patched in order to resolve insecurities and acknowledged that match-ups against ‘ghost’ players are used to improve the user experience when a small number of users are online.

Currently only available for iOS devices, the game’s developer says that an Android version is coming soon.

➤ QuizUp for iOS


- Circle

Circle has been around a while and focuses on answering the question “Who’s around you?” It raised $6 million from notable investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, actor Ashton Kutcher, CrunchFund’s Michael Arrington, and others.

Instead of telling you when other users are nearby like Foursquare or Highlight, Circle instead hones in on those in your network like your friends, family, and close acquaintances. While apps like Highlight almost allow you to virtually stalk who’s around you, whether they’re friends or strangers, Circle doesn’t retain that creepiness factor, and you can dictate what you’re interested in around you, not what’s happening across the country.

Earlier this month, the mobile-first ‘local network’ released an update for its iOS and Android app that allows users to share photos with each other and gave the ability to post content based on specific topics.

At last count, the company said that it has more than 10 million users and is receiving more than a million new members each month. However, its user acquisition techniques have been called into question by some.

➤ Circle for iOS | Android


- BlackBerry Messenger (BBM)

Here me out for a second … yes, we all know that BlackBerry is in a bit of trouble and disarray. However, 2013 was a good year at least for its BlackBerry Messenger app. The company finally launched the iOS and Android versions of the app, but it wasn’t without a bit of drama — a leaked app preempted the official release that probably prompted some users to simply roll their eyes.

When it was released, BlackBerry forced interested users to queue up. But amid all the criticism, the phone manufacturer said that 5 million users downloaded the app in the first eight hours of its release.

➤ BlackBerry Messenger for iOS | Android


- Candy Crush Saga

Still as addictive as ever, Candy Crush makes it on our list because it’s the game that made the most revenue in 2013, according to Apple’s App Store. It has been downloaded more than 500 million times and played 150 billion times across the Web, Facebook, and on mobile. Chances are that you have a friend that’s hooked on the game — it might even be you.

Earlier this week, the game’s developer, King, announced a new expansion to the game called Dreamworld that is available to those players that have advanced beyond level 50.

➤ Candy Crush for iOS | Android


- Viber

Free, Skype-like app Viber has been in the news as it expands its service. Already available for iOS and Android devices, this year it launched on BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Windows 8. It currently stands at over 200 million users with 500,000 downloads each month, and has updated its apps with new features, such as group messaging and stickers.

➤ Viber for iOS | Android | BlackBerry | Windows Phone


- MixBit

The latest creation from the YouTube founders, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, MixBit dives into the ever-crowded marketplace of video creation and social sharing services. Available for iOS and Android, it lets anyone capture video clips of up to 16 seconds each and then build a longer video (up to 1 hour) from other collaborators.

Earlier this week, MixBit’s iOS app was updated to enable users to respond to any video with their own. It also increased the size of an individual clip rather substantially. Instead of 16 seconds, it’s now 60 seconds. However, this is only for iOS only.

MixBit is a product of Chen and Hurley’s San Mateo-based incubator AVOS, which they founded soon after they left Google-owned YouTube. You can check out our deep dive here. Similar competitors include JumpCam and Montaj.

➤ MixBit for iOS | Android


- Flipboard

Flipboard has seen the number of magazines appear on its publishing platform grow pretty rapidly in 2013. It now has more than 85 million registered users, thanks to its one of its biggest features. In March, the company released updates to its apps that enabled users to create their own magazines. No longer did available magazines need to be curated by Flipboard itself — now anyone with an interest could generate their own. This became so popular that within the first two weeks more than 500,000 magazines were created.

Soon afterwards, another update saw Flipboard adding profile pages, SMS sharing, and the ability to collaborate with one another. But if this wasn’t enough, later in the year, it made its magazines accessible via the Web browser and then added new functionality that let anyone add product listings directly to their magazines.

Flipboard also became available on Windows 8.1-supported devices, complete with Live Tile support and native gesturing. It also added Reuters, TIME Magazine, and other new publications to its roster.

Of course it wasn’t a perfect year for Flipboard as it faced increased competition from the likes of Clipped and Zite, and even rumors of a Facebook social reader. It also had a couple of outages in July and was even blocked in China in August.

➤ Flipboard for iOS | Android | Windows 8.1


- App.net

2013 marked the one-year anniversary of App.net, the latest incarnation of a social network created by Dalton Caldwell. The service launched as a social platform that puts more of a focus on developers than generating revenue. And while it still has a bit of a way to go before it finds itself on a level playing field with Twitter and Facebook, App.net does appear to be creating a community vibe quite yet, despite its ecosystem of third-party apps.

To help move its mission forward, App.net added 10 GB of storage for every one of its users and opened up its File API in order for developers to create apps that can store and share images on its platform. In order to entice developers, the company increased its incentive plan by 50 percent, giving out $30,000 each month — developers like Hootsuite and Ohai have already created apps for Caldwell’s creation.

A free tier option for users was also unveiled this year in an effort to get more customers to sign up. Available by invite only, these free accounts will allow users to follow up to 40 accounts and receive 500 MB of storage.

➤ App.net for iOS | Android


- Pinterest

Pinterest ends 2013 with plans to a monetization plan, a new API and functionality to support travel interests. It also released a redesigned app for the iPad to accommodate iOS 7, along with a new menu, long-press board sharing, and improved discovery.

The interest-based, visually-focused social network continues to expand its accessibility throughout the world. Pinterest has said it had plans to launch 10 new countries this year — it has a 125 percent growth rate internationally. Earlier this month, it localized its service for those in Russia, Poland, Turkey, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. The month prior, a similar version was available for those in the Nordics.

Its mobile apps have received functionality like improved pin discovery, profile editing, push notification support, predictive search results, and friend mentions.

➤ Pinterest for iOS | Android


- Oggl

Hipstamatic unveiled a brand new standalone app this year called Oggl. When it launched, it had more than 4 million users and was a blend of Instagram and 500px. The company hoped that it would offer a new way for fans of Hipstamatic’s filters to connect with others in the community.

Trailing behind Instagram in the photo-sharing market, Oggl tries to take the experience beyond just snapping a photo and applying a filter. Instead, it functions almost akin to what you would find on a point and shoot camera.

Months after its debut, it released a version for Windows Phone 8 devices, beating Instagram in landing on Microsoft’s platform. It became one of the first supported apps on Nokia’s Lumia 928 smartphone. This was a good move for Oggl, especially as Microsoft had been touting the performance of the device’s camera. However, in August, it was said that fewer than 100,000 people had downloaded the app.

Oggl does have a subscription model where users can pay $2.99 per quarter or $9.99 annually in order to access new lenses and filters — an entirely different model from the original Hipstamatic app.

This month, Oggl’s iOS app was updated to provide an Instagram feed and a Pinterest-style Collections and Discovery tab.

➤ Oggl for iOS | Windows Phone


- YPlan

YPlan is a mobile app that helps you find out what to do around you, similar to WillCall and Sosh. It focuses on giving you last-minute access to a small number of hand-picked events happening tonight. The company launched its second city and expanded internationally all in the same move. Originally centered around London, in September, it touched down in New York City after being installed on over 15 percent of iPhones in London and being downloaded more than 300,000 times.

The company released an Android and iPad app this year as well.

➤ YPlan for iOS | Android


- Quora

The question-and-answer platform makes it onto our list as it spent this year making updates to its service to help curate knowledge from its users. It added a blogging feature to its social network allowing anyone to publish long-form thoughts about any topic. Additionally, recognizing that mobile devices like the iPhone and Android device are the best for reading and responding to questions, Quora released app updates that included a rich-text editing component.

Other improvements made include a new save option for draft answers and a predictive question suggestion capability. As more users begin to create content and share their knowledge on Quora, the company wants to make sure that everyone knows how impactful it is. In November, the social network revamped its analytics service to now measure content distribution, views, upvotes, and shares.

Quora even rebuilt its iOS app to work with the latest operating system. While it’s currently available for iPhone and Android smartphones, an iPad version is coming soon.

➤ Quora for iOS | Android




Via TNW.

Foursquare Raises $35M More, Says It Has 45M Users

Foursquare has raised a $35 million in Series D funding, as first revealed on AllThingsD and then confirmed in a company blog post.

The post says the funding comes from DFJ Growth and Capital Group’s SMALLCAP World Fund, and that DFJ’s Barry Schuler (former CEO of AOL, which owns TechCrunch) is joining the Foursquare board. CEO Dennis Crowley writes, “This investment means that we can build our vision even faster. And that you guys are going to see a lot more from our team.”

The post also states that Foursquare now has 45 million registered users (with 40 million tips and 5 billion check ins) but it doesn’t say how many of them are active.



Read the full story >>

Foursquare: Search 43Million Menu Items, 500,000 Restaurants

Foursquare yesterday announced a small but very useful update to its mobile apps. The company has expanded its Explore search to include full menus.

That means if you’re looking for a place to eat, but you’re more interested in the specific dish than the location, Foursquare can help you out. “Type in the dish you’re looking for and we’ll scour our menu database of over 43 million menu items from over half a million places to find exactly what you’re looking for,” the company boasts.

When you type what you want into Foursquare, the app will show you all the restaurants nearby that serve that dish, as well as information straight from their menus. All you need is the latest version, for Android, iOS, or BlackBerry.

Read the full story >>

#Foursquare Touts 40M Users and 40,000 ‘Superusers’

On the heels of news that they are currently in talks with multiple companies about the possibility of a strategic investing (including Microsoft), location app Foursquare has just announced that they’ve hit 40 million users. Although it’s unclear just how many of those users are actually active on the service (be it per day, per month, or whenever), 40 million is a pretty significant user base for a company looking for a boost from a big name.

Foursquare is also touting their 40,000 “superusers” in their goal to make their giant database of locations even more accurate. Foursquare first unveiled the superuser program back in 2009, which allows Foursquare users to apply to become editors on the network. Did some careless user misspell the name of that new coffee house? That’s a job for a superuser. They also receive other privileges like previews to upcoming products and features.

Foursquare says that their 40,000 superusers come from 147 different countries, and collectively make over a million edits every month.

Read the full story >>

Microsoft May Soon Invest In Foursquare

Foursquare is reportedly in talks with multiple companies about a potential strategic investment, and one of them is Microsoft.

Bloomberg first reported the news, citing people with knowledge of the situation, then later reported that Microsoft specifically is in advanced stage talks with the company.

The news comes after Foursquare launched its Windows 8 app on Wednesday, which you can read more about here.


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#Foursquare’s New #Windows 8 App Brings LocalSearch to Desktop

In the four years Foursquare has been around, it’s gone from the app that tells everyone about the donut you’re currently eating to the app that helps you find the donut you actually should be eating. The evolution of Foursquare’s fundamental purpose, from a geolocation-based social app to a local business recommendation engine, has been mirrored by the app’s design changes over the years—meaning, check-ins and social functions have been demoted while Explore and search have taken over the prime real estate of your phone’s screen.

It makes sense then, in the app’s most recent incarnation launched today for Windows 8, Foursquare is gunning even harder to become your go-to service for telling you what you want and how to get there.

The fact that this is Foursquare’s foray into native apps for the non-mobile world is notable. The app can be used across Windows 8 platforms, from your Surface tablet to your desktop computer without its basic functionality changing at all. Foursquare has already proved itself as a reliable source for quick-check information like, what’s immediately nearby, hours of operation and whether or not that burrito place you’ve been eyeing takes credit cards (it probably doesn’t).


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Yahoo, Foursquare In Talks Over Data Partnership

Foursquare, once criticized for not being able to figure out a business, may have finally struck gold deep in its data centers.

The location-based startup in New York already brings in a small amount of advertising revenue — about $2 million in 2012, which is doubling about every quarter, according to a source familiar with the company’s financials. However, there may exist a much more lucrative stream of revenue deep in the guts of the company’s servers: monetizing data about venues and locations that it has collected from millions of check-ins throughout its roughly four-year lifetime.

Foursquare already does this through a partnership with Gnip, which sells packaged data from social services like Twitter, but it may go beyond even that as the company is in talks with Yahoo to partner for the company’s location data — though the discussions are still fluid — according to two sources familiar with the matter. Foursquare was also reportedly in talks with Apple to serve up its location data for the iPhone’s Maps application, which was critically panned when compared with the robust data Google has available through its Maps application.

Indeed, Foursquare’s data has become more valuable following Google’s $1 billion acquisition of Waze, according to a source familiar with the deal. Similar to Foursquare, Waze has a large community of users that essentially builds a database of intersections and streets along with traffic data, while Foursquare focuses on locations like venues and restaurants. Waze also uses data available through Foursquare’s platform.

Foursquare has collected about 4 billion check-ins. Those check-ins, in addition to a massive network of apps — like Instagram and Uber — using Foursquare and sending data back to the company, have created one of the most robust databases of venues available on the web. Each venue carries with it an extensive profile, including points of information such as which times of day it’s popular, what impact the weather has on it, and the like. And pretty much every developer working on the Foursquare platform has access to that data.

“We’re getting a lot of data back that’s actually making our product better,” Holder Luedorf, head of business development at Foursquare, said. “We have a good amount of photos in our database attached to venues coming back from Instagram, for example.”

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Why Do Digital Marketers Love #Foursquare?

By Mary C Long at SocialTimes:

What do self-identified “digital marketers” know about strategic online marketing that you don’t? Lots. It’s their JOB to know what works and what doesn’t.

So wouldn’t it be interesting to know where they’re focusing their efforts on Twitter and what kind of content they’re sharing most often, including their favorite social sources? Thanks to the folks at Leadtail, we can tell you just that.

And as you’ve guessed, Foursquare ranks highly among these sharable nuggets — higher than you’d expect, no doubt. (Hint: It beats out Twitter photos and Vines . . . on Twitter!)

We told you before that marketers really like Foursquare- and with good reason. It offers:

A Great User Experience and a simple way for consumers to discover unique information about a location and what is happening there

Seamless Search and Share Capabilities offering new ways for users to search for local businesses by places they haven’t been yet and and an easier way to share to Facebook and Twitter from their iPhones once they actually check in.

Personalization for Multiple Locations, which is fantastic from both a consumer and a brand perspective. The ability to “like” tips and comments made to a brand’s Foursquare pages from social media dashboards is win-win.

A Rapidly Growing Community: “In general, Foursquare is expanding – the platform is now home to 1.3 million business pages, 3.5 billion check-ins and 33 million users.”

And, it’s newest arrival – Ads After Checkin: “post check-in interstitial advertisements, according to reports in Ad Age and About Foursquare, with Captain Morgan rum as an early taker.”

The ads work based on the type of venue a user checks in to. Users who check in to bars see Captain Morgan ads suggesting that they order a Captain and Coke. Users who checked in to local pools have also seen ads for Toys R Us.

So is it any surprise that digital marketers are so enthusiastically embracing Foursquare?

Well, yes! Which is why you’re reading this post to begin with. You probably thought the only thing Foursquare was good for was annoying followers with checkins or providing easy access to stalkers, right? Well, you’re wrong.

But who are the folks sharing Foursquare tweets more often than Vines on Twitter? Here’s how they describe themselves:

And they’re located all over the U.S.

So it looks like Foursquare’s business case is making sense to lots of folks who (we’re assuming) know better than the rest of us. Maybe it’s time to give Foursquare checkins a serious shot with your business.

Want to know more about these digital marketers – like what they talk about, which social networks they’re active on and digital marketers’ favorite sources? Reach out to the folks atLeadtail and download their full (free) report here. You’re welcome.

#Foursquare Lets Users Search for Venues in Other Cities

Yelp and Foursquare have been becoming increasingly similar over the last year, but each app offers something the other can’t do: With Yelp, users can’t search for all venues near them; they have to choose in advance what they want to do. With Foursquare, they can’t search for businesses in another neighborhood or city.

But Foursquare has again narrowed the difference between its local search product and Yelp’s, by allowing Web users to specify a location other than the one indicated by their ISP addresses. The company today added a second search box on its home page that allows users to specify a location. (About Foursquare first reported the change.)

The search box recognizes neighborhoods and city names.

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