Foursquare’s shift in emphasis from its location-based social networking aspects to its strength in local search is about to become much more evident. Later this afternoon, Foursquare is unveiling a new home page for its desktop users who aren’t logged in, and it features a prominent search box smack dab in the middle of the page. This is a clear shot in the direction of Yelp, its main competitor in this arena. “And in some ways the move completes Foursquare’s evolution from a more narrow and novelty oriented friend finder, game and check-in app to a genuine local search utility with much broader ‘mainstream’ ambitions and appeal.” The search product takes into account variables like check-ins, lists, likes, dislikes and tips to generate numerical scores for each business or listing for its rankings. Results are listed in order by score. Ads or sponsored listings are probably on their way. (Search Engine Land)
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