Canadian travel content and technology firm PlanetEye is having a lot of fun and getting some interesting results after experimenting with FourSquare.
The location-based check-in tool has, until now, either been seen as an game-driven oddity or something that has huge potential but no-one really knows how to harness it.
PlanetEye is trying to change all that after developing some technology to analyse every movement on the system in a given city (only a few companies such as SocialGreat have access to the FourSquare API).
The technology plots the live check-ins on a Google Map so any other user can get a picture of what is happening in any given city.
And because one of the important elements around FourSquare is the idea that certain places become popular either through recommendation or simply by the volume of people checking in, being able to display such information about a destination makes it compelling for DMOs and other organisations.
Another consideration is the level of social detail contained within a person's FourSquare profile - Person A likes a club, which is also liked by Person B and Person C, who all like a particular restaurant.
And so on and so forth.
The web technology was first tested on check-ins found in PlanetEye's home town of Toronto and has since been extended to Manhattan.
The content is certainly there. Within a week of turning on the Manhattan feed around 4,000 venues had been discovered. Toronto has already reached 10,000.
PlanetEye chief executive Jonah Sigel says:
"The ability to display almost in real time those places being frequented by users in a given city (two at a time, as limited by FourSquare) provides users with the ultimate benefits from FourSquare. You get a real sense for what people are doing in any particial area. As specials and promotions grow, the added benefit to both users and vendors will grow exponentially. We will be adding more destinations as permitted by FourSquare."