Rewind.me adds Klout-like scores to rate your experience across venue categories

Rewind.me, an iOS app that offers a variety of ways to analyze your Foursquare history, launched a new version yesterday that adds scores measuring your experience in your favorite venue categories. It effectively presents a Klout-like score of your real world activity.

Your R:Factor score (as they call it) is based on the number of times you’ve visited places in a particular category, the different places you’ve been, how recently you’ve been and other factors. They’re not calculated linearly, so each new point you gain is harder to earn than the last. Your score is displayed alongside the category breakdowns within the app.

The leaderboards in each category offer a quick way to see how you stack up against your friends. Do you know more about burritos than your friend? Who should you ask for a recommendation on a good sushi place?

The R:Factor score is very similar to the behind-the-scenes scoring Foursquare uses to determine how much weight your check-ins should carry in their Explore algorithms. It stands to reason that if you’ve been to a lot of sushi restaurants, but keep coming back to one in particular, that place should be ranked pretty highly. Conversely, the opinion of someone who’s only been to one or two sushi restaurants carries less weight. While the algorithm clearly isn’t identical, R:Factor scores give you an indication of the type of things Foursquare thinks you know a lot about based on your check-ins.

Rewind.me’s hope is to eventually turn their scores into something useful — a kind of Klout score for the real world — that businesses can target with offers. A new Mexican restaurant, for example, might invite experienced and influential local Mexican food fans to a preview night to try their dishes and build buzz in advance of their opening. A hardware store might try to woo experienced hardware buyers who’ve never tried their store with a special offer.

In addition to scoring, the new version of Rewind.me adds integration with Facebook’s “check-ins” and the locations you’ve posted photos from on Instagram. It also adds highlights throughout the app showing facts like your first visit in a category or your average number of check-ins over the past month.

With R:Factor scores, Rewind.me becomes one of the most interesting apps for slicing and dicing your Foursquare check-ins. Out of the gate, they give you a number to compare with your friends, but in the long run they could actually add up to something. Your experience is a valuable commodity that businesses should be able to take advantage of, and if that means they’re willing to offer discounts or perks to attract you, then it’s a win-win for everyone involved.

The update is available free in the iTunes app store. Give it a try and let us know what you think in the comments.

Full disclosure: Rewind.me is a sponsor of About Foursquare, but their standing did not influence this review.