The Breakdown of FourWhere Mapping
In the race to make truly useful apps, every company makes a geo-spatial locator to assist users in finding places to go and things to do. Foursquare did so by combining Google Maps into its communications software in giving people reviews of places.
Sysomos, FourWhere’s developer, states right on its website that because it’s a public service, nobody needs to sign up, and it is free. They built it on public data found between Foursquare and Google Maps, only requiring the visitor to the site to use a Web browser enabled with Java Runtime to display the maps.
The app begins by using Foursquare’s comment posting system. People who have tried various restaurants, bars, store, and offices check in and post their thoughts about the venues. Then, FourWhere integrates the comments into maps so a user can search any neighborhood in any city for a new place to meet with others. Because Foursquare itself tends to cater to a more mobile crowd, this app is particularly strong on platforms such as Android and iPhone, although one can access it through a desktop computer as well before heading out.
The main downside to using FourWhere on a mobile platform, however, would be the size of the text making comments very difficult to read. Only a small portion of a map with the comments corresponding to the desired location could be viewed at a time. Thus, finding information in this way would become a slow process for popular venues or those with many comments. The other factor slowing down the information gathering process with this app is the fact that it forces a user to right-click a venue in order to integrate comments into the display rather than having a menu on the side of the screen, but users will adjust to that as well as the amount of time needed to sort through information.
To use the FourWhere app, search for the city you’ll be visiting in the upper right part of the screen and confirm the location. Then, to get the information others have checked into and posted, right-click somewhere on the map. The resulting menu provides the opportunity to let the app know whether you’d like to see all of the nearby places Foursquare users checked into, only those venues that have comments provided by the users, or to clear the map and begin again with a new city. To see what another person thinks of a particular location, mouse over its red pointer on the map, and the user who posted that comment will be highlighted along with his or her comment in the right-hand column of the screen.
In this way, users with patience and perseverance can make those traits pay off in finding places to meet friends. FourWhere, the result of combining Google Maps’ public information with Foursquare’s communication technology, gives people this opportunity to become efficient in finding places to go and things to do by checking in with new venues they might have missed.
5 Responses to “The Breakdown of FourWhere Mapping”
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Have you tried the Fourwhere Mapping Service? Do you think you would become consistent user of the FourWhere Mapping Service?
I have not tried it yet, but it does look very interesting and I think these types of products are the wave of the future.
I have used it, I really enjoy it, the only issue I found was viewing those with lots of comments, can be a little hard at times.
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