Lost Your Friends? Foursquare.com App Just Might Help

Social networking is coming to an area near you.

Litterally.

The Foursquare.com iPhone app brings new meaning to the terms “social” and “network. Basically, the app allows users to ping locations in their local area, write descriptions about restaurants and earn points / badges for frequently using the program.

According to Wikipedia: Foursquare is a web and mobile application that allows registered users to connect with friends and update their location. Points are awarded for “checking in” at venues. Users can choose to have their check-ins posted on their accounts on Twitter, Facebook or both. In version 1.3 of their iPhoneapplication, Foursquare enabled push-notification of friend updates, which they call “Pings.

Based on a video from HowCast titled “How to Unlock Your World With Foursquare,” visitors are also able to “find happiness right around the corner.” (see video below)

What if the following corner’s findings are not so attractive? Well, they didn’t get that far.

However, here are a few cool details:

• If you don’t have access to the web, users can update their status as well as locations and “findings” via text.

• You can check in by using GPS.

• Unlock badges and points depending on how much you using the program.

If you’re wondering about the levels, here are some details. Every game (tool) has to have levels, right?

• Superuser level 1 can edit venue info (address, cross street, phone, Twitter names, map pin location), mark places as “closed”, and let Foursquare know about duplicate venues.
• Superuser level 2 can edit venues, merge duplicate venue listings, adjust the latitude and longitude of a venue, remove tags, and add venue categories for any venue.
• Superuser level 3 adds the ability to create and remove venue aliases. (Wikipedia)

Use Foursquare wherever you go…airports, concerts, museums, the White House (maybe not)…but you get the point.

For a little history on the program, Foursquare was founded in 2009 and was available to roughly 100 metro areas. And, not surprisingly, as interest grew functionality was expanded to include all worldwide locations.

In case you’re wondering…Foursquare is not relegated to the iPhone – including apps for Android, WebOS, Windows 7 and Blackberry.

What do you think about this app? If you’ve used it before, drop us a line and tell us what you think…if not – well, leave a comment anyway. If it sounds like something you will / won’t use… please tell us why!