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Foursquare’s newest teaser tweet shows the biggest change yet: ratings for venues

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By on June 5th, 2012

Foursquare released another teaser image for the #allnew4sq that’s coming on Thursday — and this simple image shows the biggest change yet. It’s foursquare’s first real acknowledgement (in the app, at least) of something they’ve been seeing more and more lately: people are using the app for recommendations, but not checking in.

The tweet that accompanied it read:

[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/foursquare/statuses/210080996182327297"]

It appears you’ll finally be able to offer a rating, either positive or negative, for the places you visit. Like it? Tap the heart. Didn’t like it? Tap the broken heart.

Foursquare has long relied on the places you and your friends have visited to influence its recommendations. That works great if you’re willing to share your location on foursquare, but many people simply aren’t willing to do that. This change appears to be a nod toward those people. Presumably, they’ll now be able to like or dislike a place — and thus influence their Explore recommendations — without ever checking in.

On top of that, likes and dislikes tackle the “I was there, but I didn’t like it” problem. As someone who likes to explore, there’ve been more than a few times that I’ve checked in somewhere and then found out later that I really didn’t like the place. In foursquare’s algorithm, those places got equal billing with the ones I checked in and loved. With the new like/dislike system, foursquare can provide better recommendations to both me and my friends based on the feedback I provide (this was the key concept behind the now-defunct Bizzy).

As far as other local search sites go, Urbanspoon uses like/dislike to calculate a percentage of people who like a place. As the only signal, it’s not incredibly useful, especially for places that don’t see a great deal of activity. Yelp uses a star system, but it’s also unhelpful, since most places tend to group in the 3.5 star range. Google+ Local integrates ratings from Zagat, which offer a better picture of a venue, but are more complicated for a user to enter.

Foursquare already has its advanced Explore algorithm that I find provides better results than the other sites. Adding like/dislike to the signals it already uses only makes its recommendations stronger. It also gives the people who aren’t checking in a way to personalize their recommendations, too.

What do you think of the change?

Updated at 4:00 pm to add more info about the advantages for people who aren’t checking in.

  • http://www.buffettworld.com Josh

    Pumped for the new release!

  • http://twitter.com/eric_andersen Eric Andersen

    Hmm, is this a step towards Yelp? I thought Foursquare had traditionally avoided ratings due to the obvious issues it can cause for businesses (see Yelp). Also, how does one rate venues like schools, parks, towns, offices, etc etc?

    • Chris Thompson

      Everything foursquare has done since March 2011 has been a step toward Yelp :)

      That said, I think it’s a way to get better data for Explore than just “I was here.” I’d say a simple like or dislike is pretty easy for most places (OK, maybe not offices or schools), but foursquare will likely continue to ignore those for recommendations anyway, so it doesn’t really matter how people rate them.

  • http://twitter.com/CeaseTheDay Cesar Razuri

    I could see this being useful for Tips, but this obviously has the potential of burying “bad tips” which might not always fit the criteria of bad. That, and the subsequent backlash.

    • Chris Thompson

      I don’t think we’ll see this for tips. I’m sure they’ll keep the “done” button as a way to mark they’ve been done. It’s pretty effective for surfacing the best tips as far as I’ve seen.

      • http://itswilder.com ItsWilder

        Most tips, in my experience, sadly turn out to be reviews anyway (hated the waitstaff, the ambience rocks) – not actual tips. But maybe this might start to quell those types of feedback.

  • norberto

    i hope an updated client for Windows phone too.

    • Chris Thompson

      I’d expect it eventually, but please don’t hold your breath for it :)

    • ignition

      Wouldn’t a tip of “the waitstaff here in horrible” actually be a good tip?

      Same with “this restaurant has great ambiance.”

      Or are you just looking out for the “ask for this menu item – it’s not on the menu but the chef makes a great cordon bleu?”

      • Logan

        I prefer the latter. The waitstaff being horrible, ambiance being great are more like reviews which is why I hate Yelp. Your opinion may not be the same as mine. But I see tips more along the lines of “do this because it’s awesome” or “do this to make the best of a bad situation”.

  • 5square

    I’m starting to worry about something more then anything else with “new foursquare”

    ARE WE GOING TO BE OVERWHELMED?

    Seems like they are going to drop a ton of new features on us.. and some may be great and some may be useful.. but are we all going to catch on in a quick tutorial?
    I hope that the beta testers for this have tested the crap out of this.. because if it drops and has flaws.. its going to scare a lot of people away.. I fear that foursquare has seen people use the “explore” feature and jumped their focus solely on that..
    This could be detrimental. I fear the worst and hope for the best. I see promise.. but.. I’m also quite the optimist.

    • Chris Thompson

      Foursquare sees Explore and recommendations as the future of their business (wisely, in my view). The hardest thing for them right now is to balance that desire with the possibility of alienating the users who use it as a check-in service. The important thing to remember, though, is that the Explore algorithms rely on check-ins to function. They can’t make them too difficult.

  • Vladan

    Is there going to be a web app update, too? Because this looks like it. Fingers crossed!

  • Eric Stumpf

    It looks like it could be really helpful. It adds depth to your app.

  • http://www.twitter.com/jmart730 Josh M.

    I like the addition of a rating system for locations. However, owners of venues need a way to respond/communicate to foursquare users who’ve had an unpleasant experience and left a negative tip or now rating at a venue.

    • Chris Thompson

      Perhaps that will be a part of the paid platform for merchants someday.

  • Pred2k

    Love or hate
    Black or white
    I think that is not enough to rate something.

    • http://itswilder.com ItsWilder

      I thought that also, but if the fact Chris quoted, “Yelp uses a star system, but it’s also unhelpful, since most places tend to group in the 3.5 star range” is true, then a positive or negative system is all you really need.

  • http://whit.li Jack Holt

    How do you know the taste of the recommender (if they’re not 1st level friends) is close to yours?

    This was such an annoyance w/Yelp that I 1) stopped using Yelp and 2) pivoted Whit.li to an API to solve such a problem. Surface the reccs from people who are like you (in context) and bury the others…JH

  • http://itswilder.com ItsWilder

    One trend I’m noticing is the new push of brown into the UI and the limited use of the signature blues & greens.

    • Chris Thompson

      Yeah, the color palette is definitely changing. I find this to be much more “warm and friendly” than the old, cold palette.

  • http://foursquare.com/miamalik84 Mia

    I’ve always wanted to be able to rate commercial venues (on a scale of 1-5 or 1-10, not yes/no). It’s useful because I’ve made a habit of looking venues up before actually visiting them if I’ve never been to the venue before.

    Is this revamp/”new Foursquare” the reason why I haven’t been able to approve merge requests lately? I wish Foursquare had a way of prioritizing merge requests from SUs before the ones suggested by the bot. Also, the bot seems to be a little out of control lately. In the beginning we’d have merge requests for venues with similar names, now it seems like the bot requests merges for any venue within the vicinity/are close to each other. Is this a bug? Because I’m seeing very random merge requests for two very different venues just because they’re on the same street/area.

    • Chris Thompson

      I don’t think the new changes are affecting the back end processing of things like merge requests at all. Not sure what would cause that.

  • Ashley

    How long does a superuser application request take to be approved or denied? I applied months ago (seems like eons ago!). I’m only asking because you mentioned merges and duplicate venues and that is a pet peeve of mine. :0)

    • Chris Thompson

      Months? Years? I think they were hot and heavy on adding new superusers for a while, but have cut way back now.

      • Ashley

        Go figure. At first I figured I was denied, but when I went to apply again it said I was still being considered. I guess Delaware has plenty of people. With all the duplicate venues and “sitting in beach traffic” or “cozy in my bed” venues I see, I’d think not, but maybe they just keep recreating them. I keep flagging to no avail. We shall see…..

    • https://foursquare.com/timothyshawnh Tim Harrison (SU2)

      When they opened the application page I was approved within a week when I applied, and then after a two month period I was allowed to apply for Level 2 and was again approved after about a week. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the fact that I originally signed up before the first 500,000 users, but I think a lot of it is based on the number of SU’s per area. When I applied the Detroit area did not seem to have anyone fixing venues. Since I was approved there seems to be several in the area now fixing stuff.

  • Sal

    It’s now live!!

    • Michael L

      The new icons are hideous.

      • Queena

        I agree! I miss the old icons! :(

      • Ashley

        I kind of like the new ones, but the colors make them hard to see. I think I was just used to the old ones and found comfort in them and could recognize them at a glance and now I have to stare at them for a bit. Eck!

      • http://foursquare.com/miamalik84 Mia

        I don’t think they’re “hideous”, but I also prefer the old ones and I miss them.

  • Corey R

    I agree also. Some of them are really hard to tell what they are.

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