Foursquare 2.0 for the iPhone Has Arrived ~ CK

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Foursquare 2.0 for the iPhone Has Arrived

11:38 PM

Kakrona Chan

When Facebook Places launched, Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley was quick to label Facebook’s location offering as generic. In his rebuttal statements on the competing service, Crowley also promised a completely new version of the iPhone app with functionality that would be like “Instapaper for the real world.” The wait for the new iPhone app is over — version 2.0 has arrived.

In version 2.0 [iTunes link], Foursquare emphasizes Tips and To-Dos, which are now split up and given prominent placement in the application’s bottom navigation bar. The emphasis is not application specific, as Foursquare will now also connect the dots between web discovery and mobile activity.

The goal is to encourage app users to look at Foursquare as a way to easily save the places they want to visit and store activities that might be of future interest. Foursquare drives this point home with a brand new “Add to My Foursquare” button — an embeddable button for the web that’s already been tested by the likes of The Wall Street Journal.

Soon you’ll start to see “Add to My Foursquare” buttons on popular media and lifestyle websites including Time Out New York, Time Out Chicago, Eater, New York Magazine, The National Post, Zagat and The New York Times. Anyone can add the buttons to encourage web visitors to clip a venue or Tip as a To-Do for future discovery.

As a Foursquare user, the value is immediately apparent: Read about something you want to do on the web, clip it with the button and then have access to that activity or venue inside the mobile app. Plus, when you’re using the new application, Foursquare will visually alert you to nearby saved To-Do’s; just look for the blue dog ear denoting the To-Do in question. You’ll also get a reminder about a saved To-Do when you check in at the corresponding venue.

Foursquare is also upgrading the Tips experience. Tips will now be featured more prominently on venue pages, and Foursquare will be ranking Tips by popularity, as well as drawing users’ attention to Tips left by friends.

Ultimately, Foursquare’s revamped iPhone app experience will help the startup remain innovative in the crowded mobile location space. Plus, the “Add to My Foursquare” buttons will seamlessly connect venue websites and suggested city Tips with mobile action in a way that is both business and consumer-friendly.

The enhanced Tips and To-Dos version of Foursquare is making its way to iPhone first, but Crowley assures us that new applications for BlackBerry and Android will be rolling out in a few weeks time.