Here are some articles in the news covering foursquare.com:

June 2010

May 2010

April 2010

March 2010

October 2009

Sept 2009

Earlier this year, Canadian daily paper the Metro announced it was teaming up with foursquare to offer a special Metro Badge (and give away five iPhone. And the Financial Times announced it would be offering points to students who checked in at certain venues which could be used toward unlocking articles behind the site’s paywall. Both of these were wins for foursquare, who’d yet to make its big splash at SXSW, but it seems these were just the beginning of foursquare’s relationships with publications.

The WSJ Engages foursquare in Push to Go Local

The Wall Street Journal has been tweaking its formatting to compete against the NYC leader in its efforts to increase its marketshare. Back in March, The Journal announced it would be launching a local news section for New York to begin in mid-April. Today, the “Greater New York” local section of the WSJ made its debut.

It seems such efforts by the Journal are paying off. (According to the chief revenue officer of the WSJ, the Times’ ad revenue is down 12 percent while the Journal’s ad revenue is up 25 percent in the last quarter. ) And to build upon their latest local efforts, the WSJ has announced three foursquare badges available to players in the City.

These new Wall Street Journal badges include:
• The Banker Badge (when you check in in the financial district three times)
• The Urban Adventurer Badge (when you’ve checked in from all five boroughs)
• The Lunch Box Badge (when you check into a WSJ-reviewed restaurant more than once)

What’s the NYT’s Next foursquare Play?

Btw, for those not keeping track, the New York Times paired-up with foursquare back in February to bring users the “The New York Times Olympic Badge” and provided users with suggestions to allow them to tap into the best restaurants, attractions, shopping and nightlife.

However, as any tech blog enthusiast knows, “months ago” might as well be “eons ago” when it comes to the integration of emerging technologies–so what will the NY giant’s next play in the game of foursquare be?

Any suggestions for the Times for badges people would actually want to earn?

While we haven’t come across any official statements from the History Channel encouraging couch potatoes to turn off the TV and leave the house, we were pleased to notice the Channel has decided to pair-up with foursquare to enourage people to find out more about history in their communities.

The History Channel has announced the launch of their “America the Story of Us Sweepstakes” with foursquare as part of the deal they struck earlier this year (when foursquare struck promotional deals with a number of other organizations including restaurant review & ratings company Zagat, Ivy League school Harvard, and cable channel HBO.)

The show being promoted in conjunction with the sweepstakes, America, The Story of Us, is a 12-hour epic miniseries described as “the extraordinary story of how America was invented”; it kicks off Sunday, April 25th (which, for those interested, happens to coinside with the last day of the National Park Service’s 2010 “National Park Week”–a week of free admission to nearly 400 national parks across the country.)

Your Badge Will Get You In

As far as the details of the Sweepstakes are concerned, History is encouraging foursquare players to check in to unlock their special History badge and learn tips about America. When you unlock the limited-edition badge, you’ll be entered to win one of 10 prizes awarded each week between the start of the series and June 6th. (Oh, we’re in!)

We’re looking forward to learning more about future relationships foursquare has struck up with well-known brands; they’ve currently got a number of companies such as Wynn Las Vegas, Tasti D-Lite, and Lucky Magazine on-board with rewarding customers for checking in. (We almost fell out of our chairs when we learned that Starbucks was releasing official statements about wanting to work closely with foursquare!)

So, are there any cool brand relationships with foursquare people are excited about?? Tell us about ‘em!

We’re not sure how buddy-buddy fifteen-year-old Parker Liautaud and Santa Claus are, but we’re fairly sure Ol’ Saint Nick is gonna be ticked when he finds out a trespasser was the first to unlock the “Last Degree” badge on foursquare.

While most students long to spend their Spring Break vacation on the beach, Liautaud, a California native, decided he’d make the most of his time off by convincing GE to sponsor a polar expedition. Aside from having the physical destination as a goal, the teen says he hopes his trip north will motivate other youth to “build a more sustainable future.” More importantly, the techno-traveller has a badge for the whole world to envy! (Ok, maybe not more importantly…sorry, it’s easy to get a little caught up in The Game sometimes, but earning badges is exciting!)

Check Out Parker’s North Pole Checkin!

Liautaud documented his adventure through Facebook and Twitter–no surprise considering his father’s background in technology. If you’re interested in following his journey on Twitter, you can find him at: parkerliautaud

We’d like to take a moment to congratulate Parker on the accomplishment–specifically, the badge unlock…oh, and the other thing, too. We wish him a safe trip back! For now, we’re off to make some hot cocoa as we contemplate the challenge of checking in with gloves on!

Microsoft has announced that it will soon feature foursquare tips to help Bing-ers make (informed?) decisions while searching for venues using its Bing Maps service.

The idea is to have Microsoft’s Silverlight application pull in real-time check-in information to show users where the ‘hotspots’ in given areas are. Also incorporated will be a ranking system to give more clout to users’ tips who have either earned badges or have visited the venue more frequently.

This is a significant partnership for foursquare, who saw its member-base sky-rocket after getting its name out at SXSW using guerilla marketing tactics. Earlier this year, venue review site Yelp, whose info can be found on Google Maps, began allowing users to check in via its mobile application–pitting it, more obviously against geolocation sites such as foursquare & Gowalla.

In scoping the corners of the Interweb for articles on creative uses for foursquare, we came across this amusing article on thinking outside of the box (or, shall we say, “square”) by Cheeky Geek blogger, Mark Drapeau.

You can use Web 2.0 tools any way you want – not just the way the majority of bloggers say you should…So, in that vein, I’ve been using FourSquare in some interesting ways. One thing I’ve been doing is what I call “pre-boarding,” that is, checking into real places that definitely exist but are not open yet. I became the mayor of a new cafe opening in May today in my work neighborhood. It’s legit – I walked by it. And it benefits the community – Now when it opens, it’s already in the FourSquare system, and a social network has been jump-started. And it benefits the business – it’s free advertising on social networks.

We really don’t have much to add to his novel approach to, er, taking advantage of Web 2.0, but we do wonder, “Is pre-boarding cheating?” If fact, we wonder what kind of havoc we could wreak on foursquare’s new trending feature with pre-boarding.

Since I left Austin, TX 5 years ago, I’ve always said that, when I grow up, I’d love to take a vacation and enjoy the city’s South-by-Southwest Festival. At the time, it was my love for indie music and film, but in most recent years, SXSW has given cause for techno-geeks (like me) to drool, as well.

The Panel Nerd Badge - One of 15 SXSW Badges

As Kai Ryssdahl of Market Place reported in his interview with Caroline McCarthy of CNET news, the Festival has become something of a hotbed for new social media companies. And, while it was just a couple of years ago, that Twitter that made the most resounding caw, it was a new player, foursquare.com, that had social networking fans crowing about the newest in keeping checked-in with the world.

And it seemed fans of foursquare at SXSW had plenty to shout (that’s foursquare-speak) about. The site Techcrunch reported about technical glitch that prematurely leaked special SXSW foursquare badges. (Yes, that’s right the Festival merited its own series of 15 special badges. Our personal favorite: The Panel Nerd.)

foursquare Useful at Large Events, But At Home…

But not everyone was converted into foursquare superfans after checking in at SXSW… Chris Conrey wrote on his blog, Conrey Is for Closers, that he sees the benefit of such a network in the context of site-spanning events; however, he’s not too convinced he wants the world knowing his whereabouts back home in LA.

[Sites like Foursquare and Gowalla] were super useful at SXSW rather than texting all of the people I wanted to catch up with for dinner or drinks, I could see where they checked in recently (or if they had) and plan that way…now that I’m home, I really don’t want to know where people in Austin or NY or LA are checking in to. It does me no value. It doesn’t do a whole lot more value to even know where people in Phoenix are checking in at because I don’t really care.

But what about all those points and potential for badges, Chris??

foursquare trending

Knowing SXSW would be an opportunity for the company to showcase its dedication to moving forward (if not around town), foursquare took the opportunity to introduce its new trending feature. This feature allows foursquare players to get clued in as to which parties are hot and which are not by getting word when multiple users have checked in to a venue.

The most significant trend to appear at the Interactive Festival, at least in foursquare’s eyes, was the number of followers it saw join the game. According to reports, the geolocation social network announced an increase of nearly 100,000 users in the week and a half after the festival began. (…that’s a 20% growth over its previous membership of 500,000–impressive!)

The real question now is, “Can foursquare keep up the trend?”

A number of top-tier VC firms are competing to be the major player in foursquare.com’s next round of venture funding…and, apparently, all the interest is causing the company’s valuation to skyrocket.

Since TechCrunch reported a few weeks back that the round could be around $50 million, interest in foursquare has increased–a report last week estimated that foursquare’s worth could be close to $80 million on paper!

foursquare’s Advance to the Next Round

Back in September, after its last venture capital raising of $1.35 million from Union Square Ventures and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, the company moved its domain over to foursquare.com (from playfoursquare.com.) In addition to the domain move, foursquare hired a design firm to do a sleek redesign of the site–since then, they’ve made updates to their mobile apps, as well.

A Side-by-Side Comparison of foursquare's Mobile App Redesign

Moving forward after this next venture capital round, foursquare will have to step up to the plate (or, blacktop, if you will…) Its service has been a bit quirky lately–a number of users have reported strange things happening with their points, not to mention its going dark at the end of March.

With other geolocation competitors like Yelp (which now allows users to check-in) and Gowalla, it’s going to be a rough fight in the schoolyard to earn and keep the title of King of the Hill.

As a webmaster, it’s something we all dread–finding out after-the-fact that the domain we’re responsible for has unintentionally expired. (THINK: Waking up to discover that the plane for the much-needed vacation that you’ve had planned for months left 2-hours ago. “D’oh!”)

While we were unable to contact an ear-witness, we have no doubt someone over at the offices of foursquare.com could be heard exclaiming “Oh, shit!” Apparently, after foursquare unknowingly let their domain renewal slip on March 25th, its registrar pulled the domain within 24 hours and slapped up their own landing page.

foursquare Admits Fault

As Domain Name Wire reports, foursquare.com owned-up to the billing slip up and admitted fault for having allowed its domain registration to expire with GoDaddy. (Personally, I can’t imagine having to have uttered such words to my boss–the thought alone has me near a cold-sweat!)

For a company hoping for an $80 million valuation, you’d think they’d be a bit more on the ball!