The history of foursquare…all in one handy foursquare list
If you’ve ever wondered about the origins of foursquare, look no further than this walking tour of New York’s East Village created as a foursquare list by co-founder Dennis Crowley.
The tips he’s left on the list cover foursquare’s history, from the beginnings of Dodgeball and the later creation of foursquare to the current official after-work hangout for foursquare staff. The tip at Think Coffee even describes how Chad Stoller led them to create the “mayor” feature:
Naveen & I built 1/2 of the foursquare prototype here (mostly at the back table near the bathroom). The “mayor” feature in 4SQ came from our buddy Chad making fun of us for camping at that table
Foursquare is Crowley’s second major location-based social network. He created Dodgeball, a similar service that operated solely through text messages, as part of his thesis for NYU’s ITP program. It was later purchased by Google and shuttered a few years after Crowley and curent foursquare head of product Alex Rainert left the company. Foursquare was born from its ashes and launched at SXSW in 2009.
Covering the history of the service is an innovative way to use foursquare’s lists feature. It creates a single place where people can go to learn more about the creation of foursquare and it offers small tidbits to other users who check in at the places on the list.
