Foursquare users have long asked for the ability to add a description and website for each venue. With an update to the site this afternoon, foursquare has given them their wish.
Descriptions now appear on the right side of each venue page, just above your number of checkins, etc. The website appears to the left of the map where the Twitter link is found. They can be added by anyone with permission to edit a venue, including superusers and venue staff. It can also be added during the venue creation process.
Since almost every business has a website, including a link to it from the foursquare venue page makes sense. It’s a great way to learn more about a company, from their menu to their hours that simply can’t be found on foursquare.
The description field is limited to 300 characters, so it’s just enough to provide a basic description of what a business does. It could also be used by companies to show hours of operation or other important information. The ease with which it can be changed could also make it useful for other marketing messages, such as sales that aren’t really foursquare specials, but might still appeal to foursquare users.
This feature will be a welcome addition for businesses who are looking to connect with customers through foursquare.
UPDATE (3:46 pm): The URL and description fields already appear in the new foursquare API. Expect these fields to make their way to the mobile apps very soon.
UPDATE (12/16): These fields are now editable only by the venue manager. Any descriptions or websites entered prior to the change remain in place.
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#1 by ack154 on December 14, 2010 - 3:17 pm
As I tweeted, I don’t care much for the Description field. Well, I don’t have a problem with the field so much as its location. Would rather see it dropped down. Maybe even below the mayor box… but at least below the check-ins.
#2 by Mike on December 14, 2010 - 3:40 pm
Pretty worthless feature given that only superusers can edit these and there’s maybe like 5 superusers in the world (or so it seems) with no news ones added in a very long time.
#3 by ack154 on December 14, 2010 - 3:57 pm
SUs and venue owners can edit them to my knowledge. So any of these companies that have claimed their venues should have the ability to edit these fields.
#4 by Michael on December 14, 2010 - 5:03 pm
There are thousands of superusers. Pretty much everyone who started using Foursquare in 2009 is one.
There just are not a lot of “new” super users. Though they say they’re going to correct that.
#5 by Mike on December 14, 2010 - 5:33 pm
In other words, the Superusers are limited to a few major cities (which is all Foursquare supported in 2009).
I’ve been a very heavy user since last January (when it came to my city) and am not a Superuser.
When I asked why, I was told that there were no longer any new superusers being created. Foursquare has been saying that they would start re-enabling Superusers “soon” for six months now, but they haven’t.
This is incredibly annoying, because there are a lot of junk venues/mistakes in my city that will never be fixed, which degrades the game experience for everyone.
#6 by ack154 on December 14, 2010 - 6:43 pm
I’m a SU in a small town… Not in one the “original” cities. Though rather than “expect” to be a SU when I started (in March this year), I actually helped out on the GetSatisfacton site by answering questions and requesting edits. Eventually, after being helpful enough, and showing that I can do it, I was promoted.
I didn’t just assume I’d become a SU after using the service long enough. That’s not how it works.
#7 by Jason on December 15, 2010 - 7:07 am
That’s one of the main reasons they stopped automatically promoting “heavy users”. They found that many of them ended up abusing their “power” as a superuser. Just because their isn’t as superuser in your area doesn’t mean it will never get fixed. Use the GetSat forums to suggest corrections. If you do it enough and help out…you’ll get noticed.
#8 by Rudyn on December 14, 2010 - 3:51 pm
I guess soon enough there’ll be request to edit venue Descriptions too. More work for the SUs then.
#9 by Tecfan on December 14, 2010 - 4:07 pm
I see “BUY OUR NOW!!! GO TO THE STORE NOW: PLZ!” in my head already. oww nozzes.
#10 by Michael on December 14, 2010 - 5:05 pm
As much as I love crowd sourcing, allowing anyone with editing powers to edit the description seems like it might provide ample grounds for abuse. It should be business owners only as another incentive to actually claim their venue on Foursquare.
#11 by Michael Bauser on December 14, 2010 - 10:57 pm
I agree; this feature will encourage hijinks, like critical descriptions of venues, vulgar insults in “Home” venues, and inccurate URLs (like PETA links in McDonald’s listings). Bascially, most of the annoying stuff that happens in tips, but worse.
Oh, crap, I just realized that allowing arbitrary URLs is so going to encourage the linkfarmers. Be on the lookout for bogus venues added just so somebody can sneak their multi-level marketing URL on to a major website.
#12 by Dean T. on December 14, 2010 - 5:13 pm
A couple big flaws with this. The description field only allows 300 characters, but doesn’t tell you how many you’ve used. There’s no way of knowing until you try to save and it tells you you’ve used too many, but it doesn’t say by how much; you just have to keep deleting things until it saves. I do definitely agree with ack154 though, its placement is awful.
Additionally, the venue URL field is nice in concept, but for venues with slightly longer addresses, it not only scrolls across two lines but hides part of it behind the map. :-/
#13 by ack154 on December 14, 2010 - 6:45 pm
Ya, I was kind of hoping they’d just have a link under the twitter link like they do, but that it would just say “Website” or something. If you think about it, they don’t display the twitter ID either, so why does the URL have to show?
#14 by Rodrigo on December 14, 2010 - 11:36 pm
I can see why they made the moves to limit editing powers of mayors now… with enough check ins anybody could edit these new fields and abuse them as they see fit. Before, the space was very limited and thus wasn’t abused for spamming purposes.
However, Foursquare’s days are numbered w/ this new feature. as mentioned before, there will a ton of junk venues popping up so that when you check in it’s no longer a venue for you to see but an ad, or worse, spam. if they want to implement this, they’ll have to limit venue creation at some point.
Lastly, Foursquare must think that their location database is sufficient for it to suffocate user input. These are all necessary moves on Foursquare \’s part to move from a user generated content model to a business promo model. I don’t think so but whatever. Eventually, it could fall victim & become the Myspace of the social location wars. MySpace had millions of users b4 Facebook and now FB has 100s of millions while MySpace is a haven for bands, spam, and dead accounts.
#15 by ack154 on December 15, 2010 - 8:40 am
Had another thought… we’re going to need to see these added to the SU tools as well. So we’re going to have to verify descriptions and websites with merges and address corrections.
#16 by Ryan on December 15, 2010 - 11:04 pm
going to give this a shot on my site and see if anyone “edits” my description
#17 by Robert Aitchison on December 17, 2010 - 10:24 am
I noticed yesterday afternoon that these new fields are no longer editable, but the info is still there if it was entered before.
#18 by Dean T. on December 17, 2010 - 4:36 pm
Yeah, even SU3s can’t edit, and there’s very few things we can’t do. However, if it comes through as a merge, we can add it there if we’d like. Weird that they haven’t taken that away. I was going through and adding website links to tons of venues and now that ability is gone. I wonder what tiny percentage of venues are actually claimed and managed to that degree.
They roll out a new feature, then lock it down. Hmm.
#19 by Thomas Kernen on December 20, 2010 - 10:29 am
It’s a shame that the SU3s can’t edit. I also had started plugging in URLs for the top locations (airports, landmarks, official/gov buildings). Personally I think it would make sense that SU3s could do these edits.
And as you pointed out, many of the “key” venues in those categories may not be owned. I hope 4SQ will change their mind on this one.
#20 by sabine Taylor on December 23, 2010 - 10:37 am
It seems that Foursquare works well for Brick and Mortar shops. I, however, want to know how can I promote Foursquare for Real Estate Listings for an Open House?