Foursquare Missing Big Opportunities
I go to a new interesting place or a previous place I like, I find myself using foursquare. It has become a habit. I mostly do it to get those (really pointless) points, I also use it to share my location, when I do want to (use it over Facebook). But as I use it more and more I ask myself what am I getting out of it beyond these two things? For me, nothing else. I used to love the deals when I lived in NYC but now being in Houston I see few to none. Danmit.
Surprised foursquare isn’t doing more, or haven’t released new things yet (sure they have stuff in the pipeline). They have so much potential. The amount of data they have gathered in the last few years is incredible. They have extensive data on places and check-ins — and those two categories have probably a thousand different data points. Information that can be extremely valuable to a company like Google or Apple (they may buy/partner them btw). Their recent rating system is interesting. But I don’t want ratings of places based on where people like to go. I want ratings of places based on where I would like to go. Yelp’s ratings are still superior to me for that reason.
I wrote a post about foursquare back in March on what I think would be cool and what I think the company should do. I still strongly believe they will make foursquare from a great occasional thing to a superior everyday tool. Here are my updated wish list.
1. Offer a concierge service like Songza for places. Based on the time of day offer me places near me that are relevant for that time and that I would like. For example in the morning when I wake up and when I open my phone, show me good breakfast places, coffee places — categories of places people do in the morning. At night show me places for dinner. This will not only save me time but also offer you an interesting way to promote places and earn advertising.
2. Future events and bookmarking. Right now explore is for places to go now. Offer places/events that will happen in the future. Like a concert that will in LA near your hotel on your trip next week. That way you can plan your future trips. Also include the ability to bookmark. To-Do exists already but bookmarking should be time based. Bookmark should allow friends and others to see what you are planning to do in the coming days. For example, a friend can see that you plan on going to a particular event couple days from now. Knowing that info your friend might check out the event as well. Again Sosh does this and does it beautifully.
3. Partnerships with Ticketmaster and Opentable. Be the one stop product for people to search, research, plan and buy. This should take care of from reservations for a restaurant to buying tickets to a game.
C’mon foursquare, make these happen.
(Below is the concept I made on my last post.)
Originally published at razeeb.com on Jan 27th, 2013.
