Foursquare is serious about local search. Today’s launch of Explore on the web proves that, but there are other little things that foursquare has been adding recently that point to their desire to be a one-stop shop for location information. The latest addition shows you the price range of select restaurants right on the foursquare venue page.
It’s something Yelp shows on every page (along with lots of other data like hours and whether a place accepts reservations), and is incredibly helpful when determining whether or not you want to visit a place.
In fact, it’s so helpful that foursquare has added it directly into the listings on their new Explore page. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s also a data point being used by Explore (e.g., “this user has visited lots of expensive restaurants, so show more of those in the Explore results.”)
The price range information appears to come from Zagat, where (oddly enough) it’s only available to subscribers.
You’ll notice that one thing foursquare doesn’t include on the venue page is hours. It’s an incredibly complicated piece to add and keep updated accurately (hence why it briefly appeared on the foursquare site in September and was quickly taken down). Up to now, foursquare hasn’t really needed it, since Explore knows when people typically check in to a place and thus only recommends places that are open. With the new desktop version of Explore, however, it takes on new importance since people could be searching for places to visit well into the future. I expect we’ll see it return to venue pages in the near future.
What do you think of the addition of price ranges? Should foursquare include hours on venue pages as well?
/Thanks to Geoff Gauchet for pointing this out!
#1 by Murilo on January 12, 2012 - 2:12 pm
The hours should definitely come back, it’s such an important and useful piece of information. It is difficult to keep it up to date but now that venue info are in the hands of its managers it’s their responsibility. And if I get there when it’s supposed to be opened and it’s not I’ll just make a formal complain about it.
#2 by Carlos S on January 12, 2012 - 2:59 pm
Nice move. If they start to use the hours which the venue is opened, they can use that to validate checkins out of hours of operations and reduce “stalker mayors” and jumpers.
#3 by Chris Thompson on January 12, 2012 - 3:10 pm
That would be the worst possible move they could make and it’s incredibly unlikely to ever happen. People get pissed off enough as it is when foursquare says they’re too far away to get points (due to bad GPS locations, etc). Restricting by hours would make that even worse.
There are lots of places I check in where the place isn’t officially open, but I’m there for a special event. The zoo and museums come to mind the most. I’m there. It’s a legitimate checkin. Why shouldn’t I be allowed to get points/badges/mayorships for that?
#4 by Carlos S on January 12, 2012 - 3:30 pm
I know better to realize that they would never do anything to prevent jumpers/stalkers. Fortunately, I am not a business/venue owner or a company that pays an amount to have a badge and let illegal checkins earn badges/specials.
If I would, I would demand blocking fake checkins.
I have been the mayor at near by Radio Shack for few times, however a stalker keeps “getting” the mayorship with fake checkins done after 11PM when ALL the Radio Shacks are already closed.
I am sure that most of “mature users” (nothing to do with age), do real checkins , but there are still the bad ones.
#5 by BehradB on January 12, 2012 - 3:10 pm
I also think it would be great if foursquare could partner with OpenTable and have a link on venue pages so you can make a reservation right from foursquare.
#6 by Chris Thompson on January 12, 2012 - 3:11 pm
I would be surprised if that isn’t already in the works.
#7 by Geoff on January 12, 2012 - 3:35 pm
My guess on hours would be, most likely, handled by claimed venues only, which is acceptable to me. If there’s an employee of that venue curating and managing its foursquare listing, I’d trust the hours more than some random user-submitted set of hours.
#8 by Carlos S on January 12, 2012 - 3:38 pm
Exactly, just common sense.