Celebrating its two-year anniversary, geo-location "check-in" app Foursquare today rolled out version 3.0 (see the review of Foursquare for iPhone), which includes new recommendations based on the "experts" in your social network, and new rewards that businesses can give to their loyal Foursquare customers.
One of the most significant changes is a new Explore tab, which delivers personal recommendations based on a number of factors that blend your own history and preferences with what other users are doing. Suggestions may derive in part from your own check-in history, your friends' check-in histories, your loyalty to favorite places, categories of venues, what's popular with other users, date and time, and more.
Another improvement included in this upgrade is an overhaul to the leaderboard, one of the more video game-like elements of the service. The new leaderboard will show a sliding seven-day "barometer" of users's check-in locations, which allows them to earn more points for new types of actions, such as discovering new venues to meeting up with old friends.
Merchants will see new improvements and options on their end as well. Businesses will be able to offer Foursquare members six new "specials," rewarding "swarms," group check-ins, regular customers, first-time customers, Mayors, as well as every Foursquare user who frequents the business. Additionally, the "Places" screen on the app now shows Specials that are nearby, allowing users to seek out deals more efficiently.
According to the official Foursquare blog, version 3.0 for Android and iPhone will be live later today, with an update for BlackBerry users due later this week. An app for Symbian and Windows Phone 7 owners is not yet available, but Foursquare said it hopes to have one in the future.
Foursquare reports that almost a half billion check-ins were recorded by 7.5 million Foursquare members in the last year.