Foursquare: It's More Than Twitter-esque

Earlier this year, Foursquare, a New York based location services start up celebrated its first anniversary with more than 500,000 users and 1.4 million venues. This service is a blend of game and social network. Primarily a friend locator and check in application, it also allows you to earn status and badges. While Foursquare has not surpassed the hype of Twitter, it has many applications that are popular and fun to use.

When Foursquare first became used with your iPhone, Twitter and Facebook accounts. It offers such cute applications as Top 3, Hootsuite, Bon Appetite and Sprout Social. The various applications can be used for personal entertainment, self discovery or business. The most popular applications include Zagat, Bravo, VHI, and MTV.

Zagat is a "foodie" love application which connects Foursquare users with restaurant guide publisher. This Foursquare application has 50,705 followers. And, through it, Foodsquare aficionados earn points and badges.

While Bravo aired Foursquare's first TV commercial, the two had another special relationship. The Foursquare Bravo application has about 49,000 followers, who earn points and badges through the integration show personalities and their city tips.

For users of Foursquare, new frontiers are explored in the realm of music entertainment. With the MTV application, which boasts 40,747 users, and the VH1 application, with almost 31,000 users, urbanites can explore unique musical venues, concert halls and rock clubs or be a celebrity stalker.

Foursquare applications cover everything from destinations and trends. Popular applications help connect people with enjoyable restaurants, music, friends, and celebrities. Going beyond phone applications, Foursquare is now linked to other social networks.

Foursqaure is not the only social location service around. It's biggest competitor, Gowalla, offers some great features as well. But, critics believe that Gowalla trumps Foursquare in design and availability, but that Foursquare is superior when considering its check-in location accuracy, device support, friend management, and value adding features such as city guides and to do lists.
Foursquare is checked out by a user every 17 seconds. Some believe that ignoring FourSquare is like ignoring Twitter. You can't. Foursquare and geolocation marketing is everywhere and as a result, Foursquare may be the innovative twist to our modern dependence on the Internet, high tech gadgets and the need for accessibility.

It is as addictive as Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Foursquare has usefulness in business as well as one's personal life. As time goes on, it will be interesting to see if Foursquare's mix of competition, information and networking will make it bigger than Facebook or Twitter.