As has been made abundantly clear to me over the past two weeks, just about every location-based service is planning big things for the SXSW festival, which starts later this week in Austin, Texas. A few of the players have already started rolling out small changes, such as aesthetic upgrades. But a new, subtle update by Foursquare may have much larger implications.
As we noted last week, Foursquare has begun revamping the “history” area of its website. This is likely part of the larger goal to completely revamp the website itself (which isn’t very useful right now), and this data also ties in to the new Foursquare iPhone app set to launch later this week. But another update makes the history area show not only where you checked-in, and the category of the venue, but also who you checked-in with.
Basically, Foursquare has just turned on a new layer to your location history data. And this layer is very interesting because it goes back in time to show you who you were with at a certain venue when you were there.
Now, to be clear, it only shows you the friends you were with — not all Foursquare users. (But this means that they have that data as well.) Still, this data paints a clearer picture around your location history and potentially enriches your social graph. It’s one thing to say you’re “friends” with someone on a social network, but another to have checked-in to the same venue at the same time over and over again. Either you’re torturing yourself, or you really are good friends with that person.
This is a huge part of location as the bridge between social networking and actual social activity.
Foursquare has highlighted similar data for a while on the stats page, showing you who you check-in with most often. But this new history data takes that to the next level. And while the data right now only seems to go back to last December or so, Foursquare plans to implement it all the way back to 2003 — yes, 2003.
That’s because before Foursquare, co-founder Dennis Crowley ran a similar service called Dodgeball, which Google bought in 2006, and deadpooled last year. But users were able to import their old Dodgeball data before it went under, so Crowley now hopes to build a full location history social graph going back that far for long-time users.
“We gotta backfill some of the data (easy, but for those who imported their Dodgeball history before Google took the site down, we can give you a good idea of the trends around who you’ve been hanging out w/ going back to 2003.) It’s awesome awesome awesome,” Crowley writes in an email to us.
Something else Crowley is excited about is the potential for the visualization of this data. While this location history + friends isn’t yet in the API, it definitely will be, he notes. Depending on how that data is shared, that may raise some privacy issues, but Foursquare has made it clear that they’re well aware and very serious about the issues surrounding the sharing of location data.
Even on the most basic level, this new layer of location history data should be interesting to people. It’s great to look back and see not only where you were on a certain date, but who you were there with. That’s what social data is all about.
How many users do they have again? Not even a million?
It’s the active users that matters. Everyone knows that.
just about 500,000 now
Brightkite has over 2 million, and looks to be announcing something huge at SXSW.
Brightkite isn’t Foursquare. MG’s got a soft spot in his heart for Foursquare… posts accordingly. Not that big of a deal.
-Steve
Sent from my iPhone
right – as we reported.
http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/26/brightkite-2-million-users/
One company gets an article when it hits 2 mil, the other smaller company gets an article for minor UI changes. Surely you can see the difference.
Can I be the first to say “OMFG ANOTHER MG FOURSQUARE POST”.
Maybe they are giving FourSquare some extra push.
Foursquare is *just not that interesting* and may I be the first to suggest we are heading in towards a global online privacy crisis – a loss of confidence in these systems as people realise what they do with their data.
How about the next big evolution in the social web being about pushing less personal data for a change?
Foursquare seems to be operating on many many levels in terms of the way the business is progressing … Deals with carriers like Vodafone in the UK, SXSW tie-ups with Spin Magazine, technical improvements to the service, new iPhone and Android apps, now this new “history” feature, and the list goes on. That said, their efforts are all seemingly focused on improving the product and user experience, and that’s a good thing. So far, they’re the smartest of the lot.
Foursquare allows registered users to connect with friends and update their location. Points are awarded on weekends and non-business hours for “checking in” at venues. Users can choose to have their Twitter and/or their Facebook accounts updated when they check in
Currently this one is starting to dominate the way how you discover geo-targets in USA (using social media and game) More details: http://bit.ly/foursquare-detailed-review
Nice! Now let’s see when someone comes up with FourSquare to provide an alibi ;)
I was thinking more if your spouse could see where you have been. *chuckle* Oh, not an issue for me of course…hi, honey! Yup, just posting on TechCrunch….
Only a silly person would check in at a place their wife doesn’t approve of!
Whats funny is back when Twitter wasnt as popular, and Michael Arrington invested in the company…All we read about was twitter this, twitter that … now its FourSquare this and that .. I guess my question is … Who invested in Foursquare at TC??
Seriously. Am a fan of most things MG, but this is getting a little ridiculous, and revealing an obvious bias the likes of which I haven’t seen before. Another day, another Foursquare write up.
statement just full of facts right there. nice work.
Sucks for me, none of my friends use foursquare so I check-in alone! I wish they would incorporate some features for meeting people or at least becoming “foursquare friends”, the way that I have twitter friends that I don’t know in real life.
Yeah.. I had thought about something like location-based instant dating service using some kinda bluetooth connection with other matching mechanism (e.g. pre-registered profile info base) long time ago, and this “history” feature of 4SQ would be a new way to expand one’s social graph from offline to online! Why not? Sharing common interest for anything at the same place with others? :)
Your intentions are good but after spending thousands of dollars on a case study my company came to the conclusion that women are very hesitant to participate in Location Based Service dating. I have a whole study to back it up, I even dug up studies from Europe that came to the same conclusion.
Our idea was to enable dating based on blue-tooth proximity. MIT had originally stollen the idea from a UK firm and pawned it as their own under the name Social Serendipity.
You cant change human nature. It doesnt work.
Blah, Blah, Blah….Location based Blah, Blah, Blah, did someone say something? Lots of money going into location based technology, wait for the spike in murders, rapes and robberies to make headlines because of this technology….it won’t be money well spent once the government steps in or people quit participating/buying and disabling the devices using it. jmho! good luck
As creepy as some of the Please Rob Me implications are, all of this stuff is opt in. This will be the location based SXSWi. Looking forward to reporting from you guys and others on developments.
Another Foursquare artcile, another 50 bucks in MG’s pocket…
As has been made abundantly clear to you for a while?
Wow, imagine being able to know if you were with a location with friends. Even better, imagine being able to know if you go to the same location with the same friends often.
I wish I had something like that. Oh wait I do, it’s called having a memory.
lol…that’s why these services are so dumb (social networks included). Why do I need a service to tell me who I am, and am not friends with. Last I checked, like you, I also have a memory.
I love these new features, but on android I find that commonly some of the cool features you find for foursquare dont show up for android. that’s why I love http://servicetattler.com which you can download on android marketplace for free. It lets you check into foursquare places, but then you can add rating details on top of your check in and then share your rating with your friends on twitter. It makes me feel like a food critic.
I don’t see a long term future for this app. Well… not a future with massive amounts of users… I think this might become the Geocities of moblie interactive social networking advertising app thingies.
Would be cooler if they were in the App Store. Which they’re not, at the moment. http://thenextweb.com/apps/2010/03/08/foursquare-checks-itunes-app-store/
@Jim Long – Unfortunately, Foursquare is not ‘opt in’ for Twitter users that have to wade through incessant check-ins that do nothing more than keep me from reading tweets I actually care about. I hope the day is coming – and soon, that Foursquare recognizes this and requires users to opt in for Twitter updates for check-ins.
MG,
I genuinely like your work, but would appreciate it you stop writing about foursquare so much. There are other geo-location app companies out there and your writing are pretty one sided.
didn’t you leave the same basic comment after a few posts about mytown a few weeks ago?
Meh, don’t worry about it MG. If you like stuff, write about it. That’s what you should be doing.
Now, if we can just get politicians to use it then we catch more of them in creepy clinton sex scandals. :)
I wish I had such dedicated followers like you MG. What did they do to get you so intrigued?
foursquare doesn’t allow a user to comment on a their friends check-ins? brilliant
FourCrunch, you are great! :-)
To others who don’t like the daily news about the most brilliant app ever made, stop reading FourCrunch please.
I need it for my days, MG is making my life even better, cause I can’t wake up without know if something new has happened @ Foursquare. And if the founders are sick? And if someone @ FS has headache cause he was out all the night?
We definitively need this kind of news, so please FourCrunch, go ahed!
Not bad… only took them 6 months to copy the Faces elements of Plancast ;)
keeding, i keed.
(disclosure: i’m an investor and paid hitman for PlanCast)
Its all about the media..FourSquare is pretty cool, but it ain’t that great!
But everywhere I turn I see FourSquare these days. Its the new baby of the tech media so its gonna be huge valuation wise.
My guess, a big player will be tempted to buy it.
You know, like billionaires buy soccer clubs.
They just must have it !
I just saw Bright kite, pretty cool. In regards to Four Square , I’m interested to see where it goes.
This is cool.
This sounds cool in theory!
damn, can’t remember going to monaghan’s – but my statement confirms that fernet was highly likely. just glad there’s not a 3am check-in at motel 6.
Is this minor tweak newsworthy?