Foursquare Finally Adds New Cities

Foursquare is a social media service that was launched during this past SXSW. They help you find new ways to explore your city and meet up with your friends. They also let you earn points and unlock badges for discovering new places, doing new things and meeting new people. Up until now, they didn’t support my city so I couldn’t play along, but they recently added new cities including Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, and Vegas.

The first thing you need to do is what’s called “checking-in.” This is simply letting Foursquare know where you’re at. There are currently 3 ways you can do this:

1. You can use the new iPhone application (download here)
2. Use your mobile browser http://m.playfoursquare.com
3. Check in by texting 50500 like: @300 ! Doin the stanky leg. Just bowled a strike

Everytime you check-in, you earn points. Interesting check-ins get you more points and allow you to earn badges. For instance, checking in at the same place consistently could get you crowned mayor of that location. Checking in at an odd hour might get you a badge saying you went on a bender. Basically, your social activity in real life becomes a game and you succeed by being interesting.

“You’ve played The Legend of Zelda, right?” asked Mr. Crowley in a phone interview. “Remember finding the boomerang and how much fun that was? There’s no reason life shouldn’t feel more like that sometime.” (via NyTimes)

This is not another review site. Instead of describing or rating things, you’re sharing what people should actually do at certain locations. It’s almost like a city-wide scavenger hunt. The things you’ve done end up in your Top 12. You can also create To Do items, which are just locations and actions you plan to do in the future.

One interesting point is that some establishments are actually participating in Four Square. According to MG Siegler:

“But the recent news that most interests me has to be how some cities have establishments that are acknowledging mayorships. You can a mayorship in Foursquare basically by being the person who checks in there most often (on different days). One bar in LA, Good Hurt, is giving away a free beer to the “mayor” every time they come in! Another place in Denver is giving away free lunches to the mayor, and some bar in Brooklyn has a blackboard which they write the mayor’s name on, Crowley tells us.”  (via TechCrunch)

With a method for suggesting new badges and an API in the works, Foursquare is turning out to be a pretty interesting and fun service. If you actually have a life outside of the computer or need an excuse to get one, Foursquare might be just what you need.

Do you use Foursquare? What do you think about it so far? Is your city still unsupported?