Foursquare made 2010 the year of the check-in. Users broadcast their location to friends, collected badges, and fought to become the "mayor" of their coffee shop. The app's success pushed Facebook to launch Places in August.
- Domain in 2010
- foursquare.com
- Launched
- March 2009
- Founders
- Dennis Crowley, Naveen Selvadurai
- Owner in 2010
- Foursquare Labs (private)
- Status today
- Still exists, transformed
What people used it for
- Checking in at venues from a phone
- Earning badges and mayorships
- Finding tips about nearby places
Interface characteristics
- Blue and white mobile app with a big Check In button
- Badges as pixel-style icons
- Leaderboards of points among friends
Notable features
- Mayorships with real-world deals
- Badges like Swarm and Superstar
- Friends' check-ins on a map
What happened later
Foursquare split its app into Swarm and City Guide in 2014, became a location-data company, and shut down the City Guide app in 2024.
Archived on the Wayback Machine
Archived pages open on web.archive.org (Internet Archive). They are historical captures, not part of this exhibit.
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