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foursquare is a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things. We aim to build things to not only help you keep up with the places your friends go, but that encourage you to discover new places and challenge you to explore your neighborhood in new ways.

We have apps available for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Palm Pre. If you don't have one of these phones, you can always use our mobile website or if you prefer to checkin via SMS you can send a text to 50500 (like this: @ Ace Bar ! Playing skeeball). For now SMS checkins are only available in the US.

You can use foursquare anywhere in the world! Check-in at the Statue of Liberty in NYC, the Golden Gate bridge in SF, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpu or the Arch de Triumph in Paris! Back in the day, we were limited to select cities, but now you can check-in anywhere you please!

When you tell foursquare where you are, that's called "checking-in". You can check-in from parks, bars, museums, restaurants... really anywhere. When you check-in we'll let your friends know where they can find you and award you points and badges based on your adventurousness.

The foursquare apps for iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Palm use GPS to show a list of nearby places. To check-in, just choose the name of the place you're at from this list of nearby places. If we don't have the place you're looking for you can always add it to our listings. Don't worry, foursquare doesn't know where you are unless you check-in to tell us your location.

If you've been to a place more than anyone else we'll crown you the "The Mayor" of that place. We see lots of bars and cafes now offering "Mayor Specials" - a free coffee or appetizer or maybe a special discount to the mayors of their venues. Watch out though - once someone else comes along who has checked-in more times that you, they can steal the "Mayor" title back from you.

(Hint: if you want to become mayor, you need to have uploaded a profile photo)

Badges are little rewards you earn for doing checking-into interesting places. For example, staying out late on a school night or frequenting too many karaoke bars. We're constantly adding new badges and would love to hear your suggestions.

A lot of our badges are tied to venue "tags". People use tags to describe the places on foursquare (e.g. jukebox, pool table, fireplace, pizza, etc) Without giving away too much, here's a few suggested tags you can add to your favorite places to help unlock badges : airport, college, douchebag, food truck, frat, gallery, gym, karaoke, movie theater, photobooth, pizza, playground, socialite, sorority, tourist, etc.

Most foursquare checkins will earn you points. You can earn points for your first checkin at a certain place or by adding a new place to our listings. We display a list of the users who have racked up the most points on the "leaderboard". The idea is that the more you experience, the more places you visit, etc. the higher your score for that week. The leaderboard resets every Sunday at midnight.

Here's how points are currently awarded: (and yes, we've been know to tweak this from time to time)

• +5 points for your first time checking-in at a venue
• +5 points for adding a new venue
• +1 point for per checkin, increasing by +1 with each checkin (e.g. your 1st checkin of the day is +1, 2nd checkin of the day +2 points, etc)

We're still experimenting with what points could translate into. In December 2009, we did a charity drive where each point earned was donated to charity. If you're interested in working with us on experimenting with how points can turn into real-world rewards, contact us!

We wanted foursquare to be as much about sharing experience as it as about connecting with friends and discovering new places. Every foursquare user has the ability to create both "Tips" and "To-Dos" for places. Tips are generally things you'd recommend to other ("Go to PDT and try the bacon-infused Old Fashioned") while To-Dos are more "notes to self" ("Remember to come back and try the pesto noodles"). Whenever you check-in to a location, we'll try to pop-up a tip that one of your friends has left nearby (you'll be surprised how often these help you choose what to order at a bar or restaurant!). And, of course, you can take these Tips and To-Do's with you on your phone so wherever you happen to be, you'll always have a recommendation of something interesting to do nearby.

An "off the grid" check-in, is a check-in where you hide your location. Sometimes you'll want to check-in without letting your friends know where they can find you. Why? You could be on a date, out to dinner with friends, or someplace you don't want people to know about... all while still wanting to check-in to collect points and earn badges. "Off the grid" checkins allow you to still use foursquare without broadcasting your location to everyone.

Hey thanks - we'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions! http://getsatisfaction.com/foursquare/