Foursquare tweaks desktop version of site as it moves toward local search
Foursquare has modernized and updated the Foursquare.com listings for businesses as the company moves to challenge Yelp and improve growth. Read more »
Foursquare closes $41M debt financing, ups the ante on a high-risk gamble to own local recommendations
photo: (c) 2012 Pinar Ozger
Foursquare said Thursday it has raised $41 million to expand its location-based service, but the financing is convertible debt rather than equity, which increases the pressure on the company to prove it has a real business. Read more »
For Foursquare, why being mayor isn’t enough to build a business
Foursquare is making a major push toward local search and discovery, recognizing that getting people to check into locations isn’t enough to grow the business — it’s all about local commerce. Read more »
Coffee & Empathy: Why data without a soul is meaningless
As we move towards a quantified society, one shaped by data, we start to dismiss things that are unquantified. Empathy, emotion and storytelling — these are as much a part of business as they are of life. Here is why. Read more »
Evernote Food adds OpenTable integration and recipe sharing
Evernote updated the Evernote Food app with Foursquare and OpenTable integration, recipe sharing and some other new features. Read more »
From pedicures to pet grooming, MyTime wants to be your online booking solution
Could one startup convince local businesses to get on board with online booking? A Silicon Valley entrepreneur is going to see if local businesses want to get on board with his new company called MyTime. Read more »
Foursquare courts small business owners with new mobile app
Foursquare announced Tuesday the debut of a new app aimed specifically at small business owners who manage accounts for their businesses through the product. The Foursquare business app will allow users to update specials and information on the go. Read more »
Who’s winning the race in social media? Monthly active users by the numbers [Chart]
Instagram joined the club of social media companies releasing monthly active user stats, a more helpful metric than general registered users. We broke down the metrics from some of the most popular services, taking a look at how long it’s taken each company to get there. Read more »
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How to compete with Facebook in 2013
Specialist networks cater to diverse consumer segments, but Facebook’s sheer ubiquity means 94 percent of all social networkers use it. The bottom line: If any generalist network is going to gain mass-market traction, it will be at the expense of Facebook, not in addition to it. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Path dives into search with a thematic approach to digging
Path is adding its own version of search to your Path moments and check-ins on Thursday, implementing a search bar that lets you look through your posts for memories with a particular friend or restaurants that are popular nearby. Read more »
Facebook Nearby is not a Foursquare killer yet
photo: Facebook
Facebook’s new Nearby local search feature could become a Foursquare killer one day. So far, however, it’s not as comprehensive, deep or personal for users. But if Facebook can get its 600 million mobile users to think of it as a local search utility, look out. Read more »
Facebook muscles in on Yelp and Foursquare with Nearby upgrades
photo: Facebook
Facebook is leaping into the local discovery and search market with an upgrade to its mobile Nearby feature, which will allow users to find relevant places based on social signals and other data. Nearby will pit Facebook against Yelp, Foursquare and Google. Read more »
SendGrid adds Parse, Stackmob, Azure integrations
SendGrid is inching towards ubiquity with new integrations to Parse, Stackmob and Windows Azure mobile backend services. SendGrid is popular with developers who want easy email integration for their mobile apps and who don’t want to rely too much on Amazon services. Read more »
Report: Potential Foursquare investors raising eyebrows at paltry revenue
photo: Foursquare
Foursquare is in the midst of raising a big round, but some potential investors are reportedly wavering based on Foursquare’s slowing growth and modest start with advertising. The company is said to be looking for a valuation of more than $700 million. Read more »
Don’t do it! The gimmicks developers use to make their apps stickier
photo: Annette Shaff / Shutterstock.com
There’s a vast market for apps that tap into the human desire for self-improvement. But Boris Wertz of Version One Ventures says designers need to avoid relying on trendy gimmicks to woo potential users. Read more »
Foursquare takes on Yelp with 10-point rating system
photo: Foursquare
Foursquare has said it’s gunning for Yelp and Google and now it has a 10-point rating system that shows how it will compete head-on in the local search and recommendation space. Read more »
The Sandy effect: how Manhattan looks on Foursquare after a hurricane
photo: Foursquare
Foursquare has released a heat-map of check-ins showing how Hurricane Sandy affected local traffic in Manhattan. The southern half of the city, which suffered blackouts and flooding, took the brunt of it the impacts. Read more »
Foursquare launching local search engine for everyone, not just registered users
photo: Foursquare, local search
Foursquare is opening up its desktop home page to all users, not just logged-in members. Visitors can now get Foursquare’s recommendations on local places and search for nearby bars, restaurants and businesses. That should open up Foursquare’s advertising opportunities as it goes after Yelp and Google. Read more »
From Twitter to Dropbox, how many female executives do top startups have? [chart]
The number of female executive at a startup correlates to its success, according to a new study. We take a look at 10 popular startups to see how many women are in their executive ranks. Read more »
On social media and the power of real-world serendipity
photo: Flickr user Mark Strozier
The way that social-media tools like Twitter, Foursquare and Instagram have changed our lives is often taken for granted, but the way that they can inject some much-needed serendipity into our lives is often overlooked — even by those who use them a lot. Read more »
Instagram search engine Worldcam proves peril of platform dependence
photo: Orla via shutterstock
The service, which lets users search for Instagram photos by location, had a great start – for a day or so. With sudden popularity hitting the ceiling of API limits, it’s just as well Worldcam is a side-project. Read more »
How Foursquare is building a revenue strategy around local search
Foursquare has only recently begun testing an advertising product, but the early signs are promising, said CEO and co-founder Dennis Crowley. That’s because Foursquare is becoming more of a personalized local search engine that can walk people into local stores and restaurants. Read more »
Why Apple took the risk with Maps
As the mobile game is shifting from hardware to services, Apple needs to have more deep services of its own, rather than relying on competition. And maps is an important control point for the company. Read more »
Foursquare lets you follow friends anywhere they check in
photo: Foursquare
Foursquare is making it easy for people to see where they’re friends are in real-time with new Always On notifications when a friend has checked into a location. It builds upon Foursquare’s other services for finding friends. Read more »
The Mobile 15, as a PDF
Last week, we published The Mobile 15, our list of the most-innovative companies in the world of mobile. It explored how these companies, large and small, are changing — or are set to change — the mobile landscape in big ways. Some of you emailed to […] Read more »
Foursquare’s Crowley wants to take on Yelp, Google and Harry Potter
Dennis Crowely of Foursquare has a big goal of creating an ambient-aware location service that will recommend people, places and events happening nearby, but the hardware isn’t quite up to snuff yet. In the meantime, he’s using location data to take on Yelp and Google. Read more »
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Mobile 2012 and beyond
Whether it’s the iPhone 5, the importance of LTE, or BYOD trends disrupting the enterprise, there are always technologies, trends, and companies changing the way we define mobile. Here are some noteworthy segments to watch in the coming months, from location-based shopping to apps to wireless networks. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The Mobile 15: Our picks for the most innovative companies
These are the companies, startups and giants alike, that are changing or could potentially change the mobile landscape in the most profound ways. Read more »
Patent troll says it owns GPS, sues Foursquare
photo: puukibeach via Flirk
Patent trolls continue to take it to young companies with a vengeance. This time, a shell company that claims to own basic navigation technology wants the maker of a popular location-based “check-in” service to pay up. Read more »
Foursquare goes into monetization mode with promoted updates
Location-based social network Foursquare is rolling out its long awaited promoted updates, an advertising product that allows local and national businesses to push out specials, news and pictures to Foursquare’s more than 20 million users. It’s the start of Foursquare’s big monetization push. Read more »
Foursquare beefs up merchant tools as it prepares to make money
Foursquare is building out its merchant services by adding a new tool called Local Update that allows businesses to reach loyal customers nearby with news and updates. This is part of an effort to make Foursquare’s business tools valuable enough that merchants will pay for it. Read more »
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Social-TV apps and consumer behavior
Social TV is any application, website or software that allows viewers to interact with television programming and share that interaction with others. Startups in this space hope to combine ubiquitous second-screen technology with well-established audience behavior to drive new value around shows. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
“Leap second” bugs take out some prominent websites
It was a rough weekend for the internet. While Friday’s problems with Amazon Web Services and other sites could be chalked up to some wicked thunderstorms, several sites went down Saturday for periods of time thanks to problems with the “leap second.” Read more »
Foursquare hopes new mobile apps make it a go-to local resource
Foursquare’s ambitions to become the primary recommendation resource for users is the driving vision behind the latest update to its iOS and Android apps, which include a host of improvements to its Explore feature and an improved social structure that encourages more interaction. Read more »
Foursquare gears up to make money with new revenue chief
Foursquare is getting its revenue story in order and announced it has hired Steven Rosenblatt, the former director of advertising sales and strategy at Apple’s iAd. Rosenblatt will serve as Foursquare’s chief revenue officer and will lead the company’s new ad products coming out this summer. Read more »
AmEx builds a mobile home for its social offers
American Express has been using social channels such as Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter to deliver offers that can be synced to a user’s card account. But up until now, there wasn’t one place to find and get recommendations on all those offers. Read more »
Foursquare looks to personalized offers to generate revenue
Foursquare plans to offer personalized coupons through a redesigned app in July, part of a larger effort to start making money through the location-based social network. The Wall Street Journal reported that Foursquare will allow merchants to pay for special placement of personalized local offers. Read more »
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2012: The Hadoop infrastructure market booms
There are now more than half a dozen commercial Hadoop distributions in the market, and almost every enterprise with big data challenges is tinkering with the Apache Foundation-licensed software. A new report examines the key disruptive trends shaping the Hadoop platform market. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Survey: social media evidence soaring in court cases
photo: Corbis / Jim Frazier
Every week the media seems to offer a new account of some dumb crook who is off to the slammer because he posted about his caper on Facebook. It turns out this phenomenon may be even more widespread than we think. Read more at paidContent »
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10 ways big data changes everything
The emergence of the big data phenomenon is fundamentally changing everything from the way companies operate to the way people interact to how the world deals with outbreaks of infectious diseases. Here we highlight 10 case studies illustrating how big data is changing the world. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
