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Foursquare 2.0 responds to Facebook Places with to dos, tips, and embeddable buttons

iPhone refresh rolls out, Android and BlackBerry to follow

Foursquare 2.0 responds to Facebook Places with to dos, tips, and embeddable buttons
The one thing all existing location based apps have over Facebook Places – the social network's recent experiment into the location based sector – is a sense of personality.

While it might be easy to check-in via Facebook's mobile apps, there's certainly not as many incentives to do so – no mayorships, no badges, no rewards.

As such, Foursquare's decision to refresh its set up rather than reinvent the wheel is advisable, with version 2.0 pushing forward both to dos and tips for venues on the app's database.

Tips for the tops

Both features – which were available in previous versions, albeit not quite as prominently – are self explanatory, with users able to add locations to their to do lists to remind them to visit in the future, as well as offering up any vital knowledge they might have about each venue in the tips section.

"Our thinking is that by making it easier to access your to do list, Foursquare will be better at helping you remember all the interesting things you want to experience nearby," Foursquare says on its blog.

"We're already finding that this simple change turns Foursquare into more than than just a tool for keeping track of where you've been, but into something that keeps track of all the places you want to go and the things you want to experience."

Hitting the web

Such a goal links nicely with the one new feature included as part of Foursquare re-jig – although it's not included in the app itself.

Rather, new 'add to my Foursquare' buttons are set to start appearing all over the web. Businesses are able to embed said buttons into their webspace, with Foursquare then adding the venue in question to a user's to do list once clicked.

"You don’t always learn about new places from your friends, you may have read a review of someplace in the paper," the blog adds.

"Since there hasn’t been a good way of remembering a review when you’re nearby, we've rolled out a new embeddable 'Add to my Foursquare' button, which connects what you find on the web with your Foursquare to do List - it's like Instapaper, but for things to experience in the real world."
Foursquare 2.0 has already rolled out on iPhone, with Android and BlackBerry updates set to launch in the coming days.

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.