I have been using Foursquare before it was even called Foursquare. You may not know that before Foursquare existed there was a precursor called Dodgeball that had a similar function but did so entirely via text messages. After Google bought the software and pretty much ruined it, Dennis Crowley started a new company to deliver on the original vision behind the product. Since it launched in 2009 as a mobile app, Foursquare has taken off and now has over 20 million users. Perhaps even some of the people reading this blog use the service?
Since 2009 Foursquare has tracked nearly every movement I have made across the globe (at least those times when I was motivated to share and there was an Internet connection). They have compiled all of this data over the years, but didn’t do much to surface it to end users. That all has changed when Foursquare Time Machine was released last week. What is Foursquare Time Machine? An application that allows you to visualize every single check in you have made on the service over the years. The visualization is pretty slick and makes some great eye candy for long time users.
As a user with over 3,500 check-ins, I wasn’t patient enough to watch my entire video, but I did find it cool to see some of my trips from 2010 materialize on screen. The biggest gripe I have about the visualization is that the flights take too long and since I fly so often I got annoyed at the slowness of the flights being displayed.
What I really did enjoy was the “Share my stats” section of the site. It really gave an amazing amount of stats about my travel habits – some things that I didn’t even know about myself. Just look at the screen below to learn a bit about me!
Please note that I do not go to bars as often as it seems. I actually registered my place of employment as a “Dive Bar” on Foursquare in order to provide a “special” to visitors for checking in. They did not allow me to offer a special as a business. Lameness.
I love how it indicates that my most common connection is from home to a bar. I wish I could claim that, but alas it’s really just me going to work.
Perhaps the most relevant piece of data to Jeffsetter is some of my travel stats. While TripIt also keeps track of distance traveled, I like this visualization much better. I can actually see the states filled in that I have visited. I had no idea I’ve been to South Dakota recently.
Are any of my readers Foursquare users? Have you gone in and looked at your visualization yet? Let me know what you think!
