I have to be honest; I’ve lost a bit of my drive to check-in places after I’ve already taken advantage of the many first time deals around San Francisco. However, Foursquare is starting to intrigue me again with their plan for the future.
At the last Girls in Tech Fireside Chat, I had the pleasure to listen to Foursquare Co-Founder Dennis Crowley. He explained that Foursquare could soon be your personal tour guide, or Clippy for your pocket. This personal tour guide would be so in tune with your everyday behaviors, that it would recommend places to check out as you walked around the city you’re in. Check out the video of Dennis Crowley describing the future of Foursquare on Socialcam here.
What if Foursquare knew your personal shopping behaviors? Think about all the boutiques and stores you’d discover according to your interests. And, think about how this would change tourism. No need for those guidebooks because Foursquare would help you make the trip your own.
After leaving this fireside chat, I couldn’t help but wonder how all this would change advertising, PR and sales. Do you think these changes would help or hurt these industries?
Consuming PR 
Number one, I think this will help location-based networks reach a larger adoption. It presents the user with a benefit to checking-in beyond deals and tips. Reaching a larger adoption will in turn be the largest benefit to the businesses. More people will be checking-in and interacting. Thus more people will be promoting the business. I think the custom recommendations and tours will definitely help businesses, but ultimately it’s an added benefit. Anything Foursquare does to reach mass adoption is really where businesses win.