∞ (stream)

I definitely started getting sucked into the game, too. Getting badges and seeing where my friends were was fun. The other night, I realized that I was about to go to a place that Mike Galpert had been to about an hour or so before me, so I called him to ask what he had. Indeed, the spinach gnocci at Supper was excellent.

That’s when I realized how valuable Foursquare really is from a business perspective. Mike made a recommendation to me, but Foursquare was the service that actually knew that I went, because I checked in. Being able to connect web advertising, recommendations, and social media buzz to an actual person walking into your store has long been the holy grail of the advertising world. We spent lots of money and effort online to drum up our brand, but does it actually drive food traffic? Foursquare knows.