Dennis Crowley, who also is a co-founder of the check-in and local search app, noted that Foursquare "doesn't talk about growth numbers that much," but the company pays attention to the number of active users, signups, check-ins, people using search and other metrics. All are rising, he said.
"There's a little perception we're not growing, which is false," Crowley said … Read more
Looking more and more like a local search and reviews site, Foursquare is launching a few brand new features with its Android update today.
The central new feature is popular places recommendations.
"When you're in a new city or neighborhood, Foursquare will show you popular places, sites, and must-see attractions," Foursquare wrote in a blog post today. "When you're on your home turf, we'll tell what spots are 'new and notable' -- places that have recently opened in your area."
This feature pops up in Android devices as soon as users open the … Read more
When asked whether Foursquare was now gunning for Yelp, co-founder and CEO Dennis Crowley said during an interview with CNET at South by Southwest Interactive that "if we keep doing what we're doing, we make the previous generation of local search products irrelevant."
The shorter answer would have been, "yes."
The underlying message is clear: The future of Foursquare depends on the company … Read more
Congratulations to Caroline McCarthy for completing last weekend's New York Marathon in four hours and six minutes! It's not only an impressive athletic feat for a first-time marathon runner, but a philanthropic one as well.
Caroline raced to benefit Camp Interactive, a program that introduces inner-city youth to technology through outdoor activities. Thanks to contributions from friends, family, and even some 404 listeners, Caroline was able to raise $5,431 for the cause.
Uncle Henry, aka Tapchus in the chat room, also joins us on today's episode with insights on how marathons have changed in the past 20 years. Henry's completed several of them himself, and even tells us about a bizarre race within the staircase at the Empire State building.
Henry ran back when Apple iPods, GPS tracking, automatic FourSquare check-ins, and wristwatch pedometers weren't around, so it's interesting to hear from Caroline and Henry on how running has changed with those inventions.
This year there was no shortage of runners wearing strange outfits for the marathon, and Caroline tells us that superheroes and animal costumes dominated the race this year.
Apparently there was even a guy who ran all five boroughs while juggling three balls--an achievement appropriately called "joggling."
There are also video voice mails today from two listeners: Lila recommends a pair of durable Sennheiser headphones, and Nate recalls a voice mail from two years ago that was featured on last weekend's 404 Throwback episode. Thanks for staying with us, Nate!
If you want to get in touch with the show, upload your video to YouTube and send a link to the404(at)cnet(dot)com. If you're camera shy, you can also leave a message on our voice mail box by calling 1-866-404-CNET as well.
Episode 705 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read moreDevelopers who launch a new app at SXSWi have the distinct honor of getting it hammered on by a group of ravenous users. Foursquare, a social broadcasting and discovery tool that launched the night before this year's conference, is no exception.
It's the second location-based social network from developer Dennis Crowley, who teamed up with Naveen Selvadurai to create it. Already it's growing at a faster rate than Dodgeball--Crowley's previous creation, which was acquired by Google in 2005 (and then was shuttered earlier this year). Unlike Dodgeball, however, it's arriving at a time when smart phones with GPS are becoming increasingly mainstream. And similar to successful SXSW launches like Twitter, Foursquare is making it easier to both post and consume information while on the go.
I tracked down Crowley on Wednesday to talk up some of Foursquare's finer points, and to see what's coming next.
Question: Fourquare's badge system takes a page from online games and things like Xbox 360 achievements. Some things like "newbie" and "adventurer" make sense, but can you tell us how to get some of the more elusive ones like "photogenic," "crunked," or "superstar?" Crowley: Well, I don't want to give too much away, but 'photogenic' has to do with checking into places with photo booths (read: tagged with 'photobooth' on the Foursquare Web site). 'Crunked' is more than a handful of stops in one night, and 'Superstar' is based on how much you check-in over the course of a month.
The badges we designed for launch are pretty generic. Ideally I'd like NYC badges to feel more like the ones we made for SXSW in Austin. Those were cryptic too ("How do I get Redford? How did you unlock Party Crasher?"), and our hope is that people start asking around to get an idea of what they need to do. You could see that in Austin by watching Twitter; people bragging about what they got and doling out advice to other users.
Are there plans to have user-created badges, and/or ones for special events or locations? Crowley: Yes. Actually I think this is where things are really going to get interesting. The 16 badges we made for these cities, they're a start. But like 20 percent of the e-mails we're getting from users read as 'you know what would make a great badge...' and they're really good ideas. Things I wouldn't have thought of, and they're really going to bring some much-needed diversity to the service (read: less bars, more museums, parks, late night food trucks, coffee shops, etc.) I'm really excited for this. I was actually working on this today (making tools for users to create created badges), but it's a kind of a difficult thing to build--it's like writing the Smart Playlist tool in iTunes.
Any plans to incorporate another service like Yelp or CitySearch to make the app a reference tool as well? I know when I'm out and considering going somewhere nearby (in the local favorites section) it would be nice to do that without leaving the application. The 'nearby tips' section is a boon for that, but what about taking it a step further? Crowley: You know, a lot of the city and tips stuff we're doing is a response to Yelp and CitySearch being frustrating products to use. I don't read reviews, but I do want people to recommend things to me. More specifically I want my friends to recommend things to me. That's what we're trying to explore with the Top 12 lists: how do you create actionable items that can be tied to rewards and accomplishments? I think both Naveen and I have big ideas about how to make this work, we're just so busy fixing bugs and making things run smoother and faster that we haven't had a chance to focus on it yet.
How have downloads and new user sign-ups gone since SXSW? Where has some of that long tail been coming from? Crowley: Hmm...not sure if we're giving out usage numbers yet, but it took us about five months of Dodgeball (back in 2004) to get to where we where we were after five days at SXSW. I'm pretty happy with the numbers so far. Enough to make it interesting in the 12 cities we launched in, and not too many where we can't sleep 'cause we have so many users to keep up with.
What cities are seeing the most activity? Crowley: The top seven in order are San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Portland (Ore.), and Chicago. (I'm) frustrated that New York is always in 2nd place; Dodgeball was the same way.
Have any businesses contacted you about sponsorships, or to credit your app with an influx of customers? Crowley: Yes. Sponsoring badges seems to get everyone excited. We've been talking to everyone from retail brands (coffee shops, record stores), product brands (energy drinks, cola), bands and TV shows. Again, lots of people have really great ideas about the type of things users should be able to unlock with usage. … Read more
Dennis Crowley, inventor of many things good, including Dodgeball (the social Web tool, not the terrible movie or the gym game Justin and Wilson can't play because of their thick glasses), joins The 404 today to talk about some interesting stories from the Web and his latest social Web tool, Four Square.
Today, we go a bit back in Web 2.0 history with the first Twitter/Loopt social-networking tool, invented by Mr. Crowley, Dodgeball--from its inception, to its purchase by Google, to its eventual shutdown.
Not to be deterred, Dennis is back at it again with Four Square, another social-networking tool, where users can compete with one another and earn badges and points when they hang at certain places. It's available for both iPhone/iPod Touch, BlackBerry, and SMS. We encourage you to check it out and report back to us, whether it improves your social life or earns you a "Douchebag Badge."
Also on today's show, we get to some voice mails about Buzz Out Loud infringing a little too much on 404-territory. It's no surprise, given our general awesomeness. In actual stories, we've got Justin Yu's review of the new "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" movie that his "friend" let him watch through a telescope in another room.
We learn through the new Digg Bar that young, white males binge drink. You can thank the U.S. federal budget deficit for that wonderful, no-duh study.
Per usual, send us a voice mail, especially about your social life experiments with Four Square, at 1-866-404-CNET (2638). Or via e-mail, if you're international, at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com. More guests coming up, including an appearance by Dan the Mantern and Alison Rosen.
EPISODE 313 Download today's podcast | Subscribe in iTunes | Subscribe in RSS… Read morePeople always used to laugh when Prince Charles talked to his plants. Now, thanks to Twitter and a software called Botanicalls, the plants can talk back.
The leading actor in the Botanicalls realm seems to be a plant called Pothos.
Please don't ask me what kind of plant Pothos is. I can barely tell an oak tree from a park bench. However, he (can a plant be a "he"?) has more than 2,600 followers and--suggesting Pothos might be a little on the self-centered side--Pothos is following no one.
Botanicalls' software is very simple. It hooks your plant to its own Twitter page and the plant feeds information straight to your cell phone. Most of the information, strangely, is about feeding.
Pothos has already offered 151 updates. Gems such as "Water me please." And "Thank you for watering me." Or even "You didn't water me enough."… Read more
The irony was a little too much.
A who's who of New York's new-media set were packed into a surreptitious basement bar on Bleecker Street in downtown Manhattan on Wednesday evening, braving rapidly plummeting temperatures and an overnight snow forecast in order to make an appearance at the 35th birthday party of one of the city's blogger elite.
Like so many things involving young bloggers, it was a quirky, albeit cliquey affair: there was a password at the door ("tacos"), the drinks were thrown back a bit too liberally, and someone had used a scarf … Read more
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