With iOS 5 being released today, iPhone application developers are once again able to unlock awesome new features in their applications. The first one to jump up with something new is FourSquare.
FourSquare have just launched a new feature called FourSquare Radar – The premise is simple, if you follow a list on FourSquare and you come close to one of the items in the list, FourSquare will popup a message and let you know – the beauty – you don’t even have to have the application open!
The version of FourSquare is 4.0 and it promises to be an awesome update. Must admit, pretty awesome to be able to know when you’re close to something that you’re specifically interested in.
Oh, and did you notice – the balls on the FourSquare logo are no longer purple, they’re green now ;)
I don’t think there is anyone who’d be reading this blog and not be able to say, with confidence, that social media hasn’t become absolutely massive. I mean, Google has allowed social media to have a +- 30% more impact on Search Engine Optimization – that’s enormous. I remember when Facebook/Twitter/FourSquare/LinkedIn and the others weren’t around, I’m not sure what a lot of people used to do online ;)
Well, I’ve come across a great infographic which walks us through the growth of social media this year and it’s rather fascinating. Do yourself a favour, take the time to look over the infographic in detail, don’t just skim over it!
Comments would be really nice folks.
Click to enlarge infographic!
There was an update for Android users just the other day if I recall correctly, but FourSquare’s decided to roll out another update, lucky users!
This update comes with additions to events, inline photographs and several other exciting things. The biggest change is the events addition, which allows you to check into events rather than checking into venues. I spoke about this about a week ago and felt it was definitely a step in the right direction for FourSquare, so kudos’ to them for adding this!
Here are some screens:
I remember when Facebook first launched Groups, thousands of businesses quickly setup groups and started inviting people. Then came pages and the remake of pages, which have proven to be incredible marketing tools for businesses big and small.
Most social networks create an element for businesses, it makes sense from a revenue point of view, even if it’s provided free. FourSquare has taken this approach too and now allows users to create pages. This is another great marketing tool – Take my word for it, I’ve landed clients through checkins.
FourSquare’s pages are really simple, I set one up for The Forge Web Creations, which you can see below:
The process is nice and easy, and I’d recommend you take the 20 minutes it takes to setup the page, the return will more than likely be well more valuable than using the 20 minutes for something else.
If you want to give it a go, click here.
Hints: You’ll need to login via your personal account and then create the page, which inherits your Twitter account username. From here you’re able to setup the page and even add other FourSquare users as page managers.
As the title says, a new version of FourSquare is available for all the BlackBerry users and it’s a big update, so take a read of all this goodness.
The look is a lot clear than before, you’ll notice this immediately and I can see you smiling from ear to ear! The user interface has been overhauled and presents you with a much better experience; there’s a new feature which gives you suggestions on places to go; there’s deep integration with daily deals sites like LivingSocial, Gilt City, YP and more.
A full leaderboard allows you to see how your friends are doing, I can honestly say that the leaderboard keeps me checking in, so this enhancement is a win.
These are just some of the fantastic new features, if you’re a FourSquare fan and you own a BlackBerry, click here (http://4sq.com/downloadbb) to download the new version now!
This is fantastic news for merchants, but more so for developers of 3rd party applications for FourSquare. If you’re not sure what an API is, simply explained, it’s a protocol which allows developers to send and receive information to and from, meaning that developers can request information from FourSquare to integrate in their own programs.
Any web application which launches a great API stands the chance of having many useful 3rd party applications built, which increases the usefulness of the web application. I think FourSquare is yet to capture the true value of having over 500,000 merchants listed with them and this is going to be one step closer to gaining that.
I’ve had a read over some of the documents for the API and right now it looks rather straight forward and most developers would be able to fairly easily find their way through the system.
If you’re interested in learning more, be sure to read the overview and definitely take a look at the endpoints, because that’s where things get interesting.
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