I love Foursquare, I think it really is the next "big thing." Just 13 days ago Mashable reported that the location-based social network grew by almost 100,000 users in 10 days equaling a total of nearly 725,000 users. That's a real landmark in Foursquare's up and coming success. But as the network continues to grow, Foursquare has got to start handing over some control to the users.
1. Build a Badge
There are some strange badges in Foursquare. The Douche Bag badge for instance, is only obtainable when checking-in to a venue that has been tagged "douche bag." Come on, we can do better than that.
Have users pay for the opportunity to create a badge. Let them choose from a list of icons and color selections. Or let users with over 15-20 mayor awards create a badge. It's frustrating to see the New York Times has enough power to make a badge but that the user with 20 some mayor awards has enough power to do diddle.
2. Business Fan Pages...for the little guy!
Brand giants like Zagat and The New York Times have business profile pages listing recommended local restaurants and venues for Foursquare users to visit. When I first saw The New York Times page I immediately wanted to make one for Montgomery Media but I soon found out that these pages are restricted to specific users. Most likely paid users.
This is all well and good for Zagat and Metro but come on! This kind of thing is dividing the Foursquare from its users by allowing corporations to make an impact on the game rather than the users themselves. What about the little guy?
3. Like, Unlike...Comment?
Foursquare has yet to release an update (or even a plan) that would allow users to talk with one another or event make a comment on other users' check-ins. Today, if you want to comment on someones check-in you have to leave Foursquare and go to Facebook and that's assuming your friend has synced his or her Foursquare account to Facebook. This should be the bread-and-butter of the network, instead the feature doesn't exist.
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