April 22nd, 2012

Data In, Data Out and Foursquare

Foursquare is going to change the text of the center button soon, I can feel it in my gut.

I had this realization today that my in-app behavior has shifted over the past few months. I am checking in less, but using the app more. The real gem of Foursquare in New York City is the “Explore” feature.

“Explore” is a lovely and truly understated technological breakthrough in that it is a recommendation engine that actually works. The more data you put in about yourself, the more spot-on recommendations come back out at you.

Recommendation engines are extrememly tough to pull off, even with dozens of geniuses and millions of dollars. It’s usally “give us a bunch of data and we’ll blow your mind, we promise” sort of sitautions where the hit rate is often pretty low.

Foursquare is one of the only examples that I can think of where it’s actually working really well (“people you may know” on Facebook is perhaps the best example, the more friends you add, the better the friend recommendations). Data in, data out.

So I am making an effort to put in more data and feed the beast. Today I conducted an extremely scientific sandwich poll on twitter and got back over 20 replies which I compiled into a foursquare list.

Hoping to do this a lot more often, and excited about the potential results and recommendations, both IRL and from the engine, that this produces.