Find your friends — no matter which network they’re checking in on — with Footprint

Despite Foursquare’s push toward becoming a local search engine, one of the primary reasons people still use the app is to see where their friends are hanging out. In earlier versions of the app it was easy to see them all on a map, but lately it’s become difficult to see anyone but the nearest friends on a map.

Enter Footprint, a free iPhone app that displays you Foursquare friends on a map, letting you see where they’ve checked in most recently. More importantly, Footprint brings in results from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and integrates them right alongside the Foursquare results, making it easy to find friends no matter which social network they use.

Once connected to your accounts, Footprint is a simple and straightforward app. It offers two filters: one for distance, one for time. You can choose to see just your nearby friends or friends anywhere in the world and limit results to check-ins from the last few hours to any time in the past.

You can navigate the map by tapping individual icons or by choosing a specific friend based on their avatar. Doing so brings up a bubble showing exactly where they are, along with any shout/status/tweet and photo they added.

Footprint does a nice job filling the hole Foursquare left when they dropped the map of friends’ check-ins, even taking it one step further by integrating the other networks. It’s easy to use and makes keeping up with your friends fun again — especially if you prefer maps over lists.

Give Footprint a try and let us know what you think in the comments.