Foursquare 3.0

Foursquare presenta la nuova versione della sua app.

La scheda Consigli diventa Esplora e si arricchisce di esperienze e raccomandazioni.

The engine is constantly being refined, and Crowley is wisely reluctant to share its secret sauce. He does indicate that the engine takes into consideration many factors including places you've checked in, frequency of checkins, places friends go, places friends go that you haven't been to, places you've been with friends, time of day and day of the week.

Version 3.0 also reemphasizes points, which have faded over time. Points have been resurfaced and fancied up in the Me tab because the startup has introduced a new points system that aims to better encourage user behavior. There's now 30 different triggers for points, says Crowley, and the leaderboard is more focused on friends.

The startup has historically structured its applications around three principles: discovery, encouragement and loyalty. Recommendations introduce much improved discovery mechanisms; the new points system works on the encouragement piece; and a slew of new special types being rolled out Wednesday will help in the loyalty department.

Nuove funzionalità per i commercianti.

There will soon be seven special types available to merchants: Check-in Specials, Friend Specials, Flash Specials (e.g. the first 10 people to show up after 5 p.m. get a free drink), Swarm Specials, Newbie Specials, Mayor Specials and Loyalty Specials. Foursquare will reveal more details in the days ahead, but the startup is introducing these new special types to respond to merchant demand.

Foursquare apre alle carte di credito con il progetto pilota dedicato all'American Express.

In this sandbox, Foursquare has crafted a new castle of sorts: a pilot program with American Express that offers cardholders automatic savings when they swipe their cards at 60 participating merchants in the Austin, Texas area.

The new automatic credit card swipe AmEx specials are supported in version 3.0. The main idea, says Crowley, is to remove friction from redeeming merchant rewards. Foursquare users need only register their American Express cards and tap to unlock the special in the app. The "spend $5, save $5" credit is then automatically applied to the cardholder’s account when the credit card is swiped by the merchant.