Farewell to Foursquare? Doh. Hello new Foursquare…
Ah, the irony. As soon as I put up a post using the failings and limitations of Foursquare as an example for something, they go and announce and release a new version about six hours later (in time for SXSW, of course).
Now THAT people, is listening to customers… ha, yeah, whatever…
Anyhoo; what does an initial kick of the tyres suggest?
The big thing here is the ‘explore’ function… search where you are for anything you’re after (coffee, beer, italian, disco…) and it’ll bring up the recommended places around you, and tell you who amongst your fiends has been, and what they think of it…
As Mark suggested, this is a huge competitive threat for services like Yelp and Google Maps search…
…it filters the noise of what EVERYONE recommends and quickly, simply set up things your friends recommend.
It’s finally the Foursquare that everyone who got bored of Foursquare actually wanted.
I’m still on the train from Brighton as I write this, so it’ll be interesting to see it working in London, where there will be a lot more checkins and recommendations to inform choice.
Other stuff? Yes, all the game angle, stats, leaderboard and the like have been spruced and look a lot more… interesting.
But as Indy points out…
We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.
But if we were, we could definitely find a great place to eat…