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> There is so much more to Foursquare than just checkins!

I argue with friends all the time about how Foursquare is a better tool for finding and rating establishments than Yelp. The simple like it/dislike it makes it a much easier way to rate, not to mention they don't allow for long winded rants much like you see on Yelp. I too also use the Lists feature a lot, especially when I know I'm going to be traveling to a new area.

Perhaps the bloggers constant referral to Foursquare as a check-in service is what has kept it from "growing", though they didn't help themselves either by trying to not highlight the other features more.

I've never used 4SQ b/c I couldn't care less about "checking in", even for discounts. But I use Yelp all the time, and you guys make a good case for giving 4SQ another look. A Yelp with pure data, no subjective anecdotes, opinions, or rants? Sounds interesting.

Lots of subjective anecdotes in the form of one-sentence "tips" you can leave at places, but IMO they tend to be a lot more positive than Yelp reviews, which tend to be disgruntled people kvetching.

Personally the tips are more useful than Yelp reviews. I don't have time or inclination to read long-form reviews, 4sq tips are much more relevant when I'm sitting down in a restaurant and figuring out what's especially good on the menu.

IMO they made a mistake. The Yelp-killer app should've been separated from the 4sq brand, not the other way around. Foursquare is forever known as "the checkin app", if they really wanted to pivot IMO they should've called it something else entirely.

Actually that brings up another thing I really like about Foursquare. You don't just see tips from random people, page's can also leave tips. I have learned all sorts of fun facts from tips left by the "History Channel" or "Food Network".

You still get a lot of subjective anecdotes, but it's easier to digest one sentence than it is someone thinking they write for the New York Times food section. It's my biggest issue with Yelp -- just get to the point, no one needs the waxing poetic about how you came to find this "gem in a city". That coupled with Yelp's shady business tactics[1].

1 - http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/yelp-and-the-business-...

> they don't allow for long winded rants much like you see on Yelp

Yelp practically encourages them by nudging reviewers to hit a character minimum in order to meet some definition of a high-quality review.

I've been trying out Foursquare in place of Yelp when I'm looking for a place nearby (a good place to get an iced tea for example). It has performed well though I have yet to use it extensively enough to determine how it truly stacks up.

One thing I care about that Foursquare doesn't make obvious which Yelp does: if a business has free Wifi.

Funnily enough, about half of the time that a place has password-protected WiFi someone seems to have left the password (sometimes an out -of-date one) as a tip.

I check in to things not because I care about my friends seeing it (surprisingly few of my FB friends are on Foursquare), but because I like to easily see how long it has been since I've gone to a certain place.

The whole social thing about Foursquare is it's weakest point. I don't know why they are emphasizing it so much. Firstly, only an extremely small subset of my friends are on Foursquare and secondly I have enough social networks.

No it's not. For most people (on whose crowd-sourced data they live on) main motivation to checking in somewhere is pure narcissism and showing off. Nothing more.

Or the discounts most places offer for checking in. And you'll never know the extent to which each is the case.

I agree completely. I love Foursquare. The social aspect is weak, but only in the active sense (commenting and liking and whatnot). The passive social aspect (seeing where friends with similar tastes go or have gone) is definitely useful.

I was in Northern Europe a couple of weeks back. Yelp is empty, the only ones who rate things are American tourists. Then, I found out that everyone uses Foursquare. Too bad, it required a sign-up. Oh, well, maybe next time.