by Robert Abby

Created on: November 07, 2010

Foursquare 2.0 has been out for a couple of months now, and it is time to see how well the Application is holding up to it's reputation, as well as the competition.

For those of you who do not know, Foursquare is not the game we used to play in the school yard with a rubber ball and four squares.  No, this is an interactive application designed for mobile devices.  The program offers its users the ability share locations and tips about said locations with friends and other users of the app, thus enabling a database of interactive information that many people can learn from and utilize.  

In order to encourage it's users to participate on a regular basis, the application offers 'Badges'  and 'Mayorships' to keep you moving up the ranks in the Foursquare universe.  Building your profile and earning the badges the application has to offer is no easy task.  It causes you to stay involved regularly, and get creative about the places that you can check in from.  The most impressive coming from Astronaut Douglas Wheelock who managed to check in to Foursquare from a space station, thus earning him the NASA Explorer Badge.  The only thing left to question is, was Foursquare actually prepared for outer space check-ins, or did Douglas know a guy?

Offering a new emphasis on tips and to-do's is on of the newer and interactive ways to encourage participation from its members, as well as notifying the user if any other Foursquare users are at the location in question.  Whether or not you want people knowing you are there is one thing, as you both look up from your phones and lock eyes, ashamed of how much time you waste on your phone.  

Regardless, staying ahead of the curve, encouraging interactivity and user interaction, is the only way that an app like Foursquare is going to be able to stay ahead of the pack.  Keeping its users interested in growing with the service is goal number one.  Once you authorize status updates through Twitter and Facebook, you can allow the rest of your network to see that you are Starbucks right now as well, and just maybe encourage someone you know to hop on the Foursquare bandwagon with you, thus making your check-in efforts seem a little more worth while, rather than seeking that next new badge with all of your might.

Aside from these few small changes, there is not a whole lot offered with the latest release, bug fixes aside.  With a whole lot of 'next big things' popping up all over the mobile web, it is hard to determine the future of an app like Foursquare, but we can say that with the few small improvements made in version 2.0, the development team had better start crunching a bit harder to offer more to encourage it's users loyalty.  Whether is be a coupon program for frequenting a certain location, or notifications on specials and friend status, there just seems like there could be a whole lot more.  Although for now, we all might as well find a way to top the Astronaut.

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