foursquare

Foursquare checks in to more revenue with credit card specials

Money in the bank. That's the motivation behind a new Foursquare initiative that lets members link their Visa and MasterCard credit or debit cards and redeem money-back specials from participating merchants.

Foursquare, a company banking on check-ins to power its Explore discovery feature, aims to encourage more of its 30 million members to tell the application where they are with the additional freebies. The places-centric social network also hopes to cash in from the program. The company pockets a fee for every credit redemption it processes.

Today's announcement marks the first significant expansion to the startup's credit … Read more

Foursquare debuts venue pages to share with non-members

Foursquare launched its shareable mobile venue pages for non-members today, as it continues down the path of becoming less of a social network and more of a recommendation search engine -- a la Yelp.

"Foursquare has tons of helpful information about places, like photos, menu items, and great tips from insiders and local experts," the company wrote in a blog post today. "When you Tweet, post to Facebook, email or text about a place with friends who don't have Foursquare on their phones, they'll be linked to a shiny new page showing all the most … Read more

Control which Foursquare check-in alerts your iPhone receives

You can now control which Foursquare check-ins will trigger an alert on your iPhone. Previously, you were able only to turn alerts on or off for a particular Foursquare friend, and that's still the case for Android and BB10 users. With the latest update to the Foursquare app, version 5.4.3, you'll be able to assign a contact to one of three different notifications categories: Off, Nearby, Always.

When set to Off you'll never receive an alert for that contact. Nearby will work similarly to the way check-in notifications have in the past, and Always will … Read more

Facebook said to develop new app for tracking friends

Facebook is developing a standalone application to help users find their friends in real life, according to a new report, marking the company's entry into a field that has plenty of competitors but has yet to yield a mainstream success.

Bloomberg reports that the app, which so far does not have a name, is expected to be released next month in time for South by Southwest. The app would track your location in the background, even when it hadn't been recently opened, and share that location with nearby friends.

Facebook has not responded to a request for comment.… Read more

Facebook testing new status icons

Thursday's CNET Update talks about feelings:

Facebook has been busy coming up with new icons to share your moods. It's also launching a new type of gift card that can be assigned to different merchants before being mailed to friends. But make its own Facebook phone? Well that's just silly.

Also in this news roundup:

- Twitter tweaks photos and video viewing

- GameSpot: No Wii U price cut

- Foursquare reveals "best of" based on check-ins

Watch CNET Update in the video above, or subscribe to the podcast via the links below.

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Foursquare reveals the 'best of' based on 3 billion check-ins

Want to know where to get the best Tex-Mex in Austin? Or how about the locals' favorite bookstore in San Francisco? Well, Foursquare will let you know what it thinks.

The check-in social network rolled out its "best of" guide today based on more than 3 billion member check-ins and tens of millions of user tips, likes, and dislikes. The guide shows the top places users checked into in 2012 in 30 cities across the U.S., such as New York, Atlanta, and Honolulu.

"There are plenty of lists of great places out there -- some are … Read more

Foursquare launches iPhone, Android app for merchants

Foursquare today introduced a mobile way for its more than 1 million business users to connect with and follow the check-in activities of the over 30 million people using the location-based social network.

"The Foursquare Business Companion App is another means for merchants to help manage their Foursquare presence without having to be in front of a computer," a company representative told CNET.

Foursquare is a consumer-facing application that people use to share their whereabouts with friends and to discover new places to go. The startup also tries to appeal to local businesses with tools designed to help … Read more

Foursquare shows off with starry check-ins map

Foursquare is showing off its last 500,000,000 check-ins with an interactive map that looks more like a galaxy than clusters of people checking into their favorite locations.

The map plots out all the check-ins -- which are so complete in some areas, it looks like a boundary map -- from the last three months in bright points against a black background. You can zoom in to get a closer look, but most of the activity is in the U.S. and the U.K.

Along with the map, Foursquare highlights its ramped up Foursquare Explore recommendations system in … Read more

Foursquare to show users' full names, share more data

Foursquare has begun notifying users of privacy policy updates that will begin making more user information and data public next month.

Beginning January 28, 2013, users' "full names" will be displayed across the check-in service, and venue owners will have increased access to users' check-in data, the company announced in an e-mail sent to users late last night. It also published a document called "Privacy 101" to explain the new changes.

The service currently sometimes shows full names but often displays just users' first name and last initial -- except when looking up friends on the … Read more