Foursquare is Getting Swarmed

swarmappStarting tomorrow, Foursquare is moving all check-ins to their new app called “Swarm“. Not to worry; all past check-ins, your friends and photos, will be automatically moved to Swarm, you don’t have to do a thing.

Foursquare is also getting a new, and in our opinion pretty hideous, logo. You be the judge.

Apparently it was designed to be a mix of map pin and superhero emblem. Sufoursquare_logoperhero? Hmm, I’m just not seeing it.

What’s new with Foursquare?

No two people will have the same experience with the app. Once you teach Foursquare a couple things about you – add tastes, follow experts, or just walk around for a few days – the app will be 100% customized to YOU. Creepy? Maybe.

This is the beginning of what Foursquare calls the ‘personalized local search’ future. It’s been built using data from the 50M strong user base and all their tips, check-ins, photos, and such.

You will no longer be able to check-in with in, that will be the domain of Swarm.  The new Foursquare will provide results that are not only exclusive to a user’s location, but are also personalized to show what an individual user will enjoy “based on everywhere that person and their friends have ever been,” according to Foursquare CEO, Dennis Crowley. That means results are personalized, and cannot be easily manipulated using keyword or other optimization techniques as is the case with Google.

What Does it Mean for Businesses?

At this point – not much. If you already have a Foursquare listing(s) nothing will change. All of your data and settings will automatically be migrated to Swarm.

Although we’re not sure what Foursquare will change in the future, for now your login will remain the same and take you to your business listings. Ultimately businesses with venues listed will get additional analytics data that should be useful for research and marketing. They will be getting rid of some of the gamification meaning there will no longer be location mayors. So if you have been creating specials for the “Mayor” that will likely change soon.

Stay tuned for more. We will update this post as new information becomes available. To ensure you don’t miss any updates you can subscribe to our newsletter using the form just to the right of this post.

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2 thoughts on “Foursquare is Getting Swarmed”

  1. In a past life I was a Foursquare user I would drive halfway across town for a tank of gas just so I could defend my Mayorship. I’d offer to do the grocery shopping when I was ousted at the local grocery store.

    In the end I deleted the app as I found it just wasted my time. I had a connect with “friends” but none were real friends and I didn’t really share the same interests, so any recommendations were off base.

    I think if I were to get back into Foursquare it would have to go pretty mainstream, and have a large active community. Currently not many of my close friends are active on any social media, so this type of social app is of little use to me. I’ll be curious to see how the next incarnation works and see if they can be more relevant in the social space.

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  2. I can’t understand the new Foursquare + Swarm apps, I loved being able to check in, follow friends and earn badges but this new design turns me off bigtime. First GoWalla and now FourSquare .. this is so sad .. 🙁

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