I have started using Foursquare sometime three months ago and I got hooked. Since the first day, I have signed up with this site I had been happily “checking-in” to many different places here in my hometown, Baguio City.
Foursquare is a social networking site that lets a user post where he or she is located. As of writing this post, it can do cross-posting via Twitter and Facebook; Twitter shows the link to the details of the Foursquare venue while Facebook posts an accompanying map.
I think Foursquare would have been more awesome if its users are able to place comment on other people’s statuses within their website.
image credit to Vadim Lavrusik
How to Add Places on Foursquare
- Make sure that the place is not yet listed in Foursquare. Do a search first. (insert image of the search results, desktop and mobile)
Search place - mobile version
Search place first -desktop version
- Type in the venue details. Foursquare will show the confirmation message that the venue was added successfully.
Add new venue - on mobile
Add new venue - on desktop
- Don’t forget to check-in using a mobile phone after adding the new place. Foursquare did NOT include a similar means of checking in the desktop version of their website. But because I carry a mobile phone with SMS and call only capabilities, I simply use the desktop to get to the mobile page just by typing www.foursquare.com/mobile
Checking-in - appears only on mobile
It was different in the case of my friend, who happened to be working in Majuro, Marshall Islands. Doing the above steps should have been easy, but an error that said “Sorry we can’t find the location on a map. Can you double check the address and try again?” appeared when adding new places. I figured out that Marshall Islands, including the capital Majuro, doesn’t have much labeled structures compared to the Philippines, so I suggested that he add those new places first via Google Maps before doing the steps above. We did that and it worked!
I browsed through Foursquare’s help pages and didn’t mention anything on what to do when this kind of error comes up.
error encountered when adding venue - desktop version
error encountered when adding venue - desktop version
How to add places on Google Maps
NOTE: It’s best to work on Google Maps using a desktop and broadband internet connection.
- Go to Google Map Maker then type in the name of the place to edit. After the map has been loaded, click Edit to load the Google Map Maker, which allows adding and editing of places. To be able to edit the place, login using Google Account. The sign-in link is located at the upper right side of the browser. Register a Google Account if you still do not have one.
editing the Google map
- Google Map Maker is straightforward. There are only five visible controls to put mark roads and put places and the point, line and shape controls allow people to classify places. Use these controls to mark the place.
labeling the road and marking structures
- Go back to Foursquare then try adding the new venue using the previous steps. Again, don’t forget to “check-in” to that place.In my experience, even if the place was added and was NOT yet approved by a moderator, I was able to add the new place in Foursquare successfully.
There is no need to repeat all the steps in adding places for future Foursquare “check-ins”. 
NOTE: Thanks to Zorlone for providing camera shots of how the site looks like on his mobile phone.
Whoa!
I have learned a few tricks around foursquare, specially since there are places that I couldn’t just check in to. Or after I check in, I couldn’t find it anymore. Anyway, it’s all about knowing the venues and making sure your landmarks are as accurate as you could make them.
Thank you for the mention!
Z
September 10, 2010 at 12:54 am
I’m right, I’ll find you here. I knew the doctor is “IN”.
September 10, 2010 at 3:31 pm
He is “IN”? I think he’s always “OUT” exploring islands in the Pacific!
September 19, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Yay! When I read about this post I sign-up right away. But I’m having trouble with the text updates. I think that doctor is getting techie every minute.
September 10, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Jhong,
What about the text update are you having problems with? Is it adding new venues? Let me know via e-mail or chat so I can help you out. I also had some problems before since a lot of the places here are not marked yet. Foursquare and Google maps has just started locating and naming the landmarks here.
Z
September 11, 2010 at 1:07 pm
I use both services but personally, I prefer Gowalla over Foursquare. I like Gowalla’s interface better and the overall user experience. I use Gowalla more often and like how I can get bonus items for checking in, use the items and drop them on locations to become a founder, rather than being a mayor of a place in Foursquare and find yourself ousted shortly afterwards. Dunno, maybe its just a matter of preference or maybe it depends on where you’re from. Hehe
Anyone else tried Gowalla?
September 15, 2010 at 4:44 am
I haven’t tried Gowalla yet, but I heard that it is also used for checking-in to places. The reason why I kept on using Foursquare is that there are a lot of users here. It would be cool to find another person who happened to check-in to the same place where I am.
I hope there are a lot of Gowalla users here. Maybe I’ll consider switching to that permanently.
September 18, 2010 at 10:42 pm
I Agree with you Ms Gem. It would be interesting to be in the same place with people I know. I got two problems though:
1. I don’t always have internet on my phone since I’m poor and don’t have a plan. Misses out the chance of knowing other people.
2. I tried checking in the same place with a person I know and funny it tweeted out that I was WITH the person. “Fleire checked in SM with ___”.
It was like OMG, that’s so wrong. I wasn’t with him per se but just on the same location. Kakahya lol.
September 23, 2010 at 1:05 pm
I use both Foursquare and Gowalla but use Gowalla more often. You don’t have to switch to a different one, you can always use both. Add me up if you decide to try out Gowalla.
September 23, 2010 at 2:29 pm
I’ve been a user of Foursquare for sometime but I became active on it only this month. Foursquare is an awesome social networking site and I really like checking-in in different places.
October 2, 2010 at 11:49 pm
Due to my fear of joining yet another social media time sink, I only recently joined foursquare. I can tell you that my fears where justified, but I love it just the same. I live in a smaller town, so adding places is the norm. Your tips will make this task much easier.
December 3, 2010 at 12:04 am
I never heard foursquare, only when I visit your blog. Sa Google Map lang ako nakarelate. Try to read more on the site.
December 15, 2010 at 5:21 am