I’m not a Foursquare user (at least for now) but I do find the popular location-based service intriguing as it continues to evolve beyond simply being a tool to broadcast your location. In particular, Foursquare strikes me as becoming a lot more interesting as its users begin to add more comments and tips, while Foursquare partners with companies such as Zagat to offer value-added content.
One of the challenges facing Foursquare is making this information easily accessible to its users AND people who don’t use Foursquare. Stepping into the breach is a new service called FourWhere, which mashes together locations and content from Foursquare with the Google Maps API to create a user-friendly tool to help bring Foursquare’s content front and centre.
Created by Sysomos (a client), FourWhere is easy to use. You start by providing your location (city or address) and then right-click on the map to see the places where Foursquare users have been and any tips and comments they have left about a particular location.
For example, if you’re looking for a cafe and restaurant in downtown Toronto, FourWhere will show all the places checked-in by Foursquare users on a map. FourWhere users have the option of getting information about the places or comments about them.
Sysomos plans to enhance FourWhere by adding content analytics, as well as more real-time information from other social media sources from Sysomos’ extensive content database.
