For instance this year, Foursquare gave small businesses an incentive to offer specials today. They offered to feature any and all businesses who participated in the search results on foursquare.com.

“From checking in, to uploading tips, photos, and addresses, to telling friends about the app, the 33 million people on Foursquare have brought us to where we are today. Four years and over 3.5 billion check-ins since we launched, our community-created map of the world is more complete than ever,” says Foursquare.

In celebration of the 4th Foursquare Day, Foursquare has created a new interactive visualization that lets you look at your past year of check-ins in a few interesting ways.

First, you can organize them linearly by time, and then you can randomize them.

But the coolest ways to look at the past year of data is by category (food, nightlife, professional, shops, travel, etc):

And by connections, which will show you an awesome map of how you traveled between your check-ins:

You can check out your own visualization here.

It’s been a big year for Foursquare, complete with a bunch of core changes to the service that put more emphasis on search and recommendations than the app has ever done before. No bigger, though, than the recent update to version 6.0. Foursquare also announced $41 million in funding.

Also, remember to check-in today to receive your special 4sqDay 2013 badge. Foursuare may not be putting as much of an emphasis on the gamification aspect of the service, but that doesn’t mean that users still don’t love their badges.

Here’s how Foursquare describes all the changes they’ve made to the app:

With the new Foursquare 6.0, we’re crunching all our data to show the best of what’s nearby, anywhere in the world, the second you open up the app. To help you discover all this, we totally redesigned the Foursquare app into four main sections. Here’s what you’ll see:

Search is now front-and-center at the top, so you can quickly find what you’re craving, or see things like trending places (in real-time) and top picks. Below that, you’ll see a map with nearby friends and interesting places highlighted. Tap on the map to expand it so you can see great places around you. After that, we show you the best things at that moment – our top personalized recommendations, along with your friends’ check-ins around the world. And, at the bottom, we have the new check-in button, for when you want to share and remember the places you go to.

Gone are the three tabs at the bottom of the screen that graced the previous versions (friends, explore, and me). Explore and your friend feed is all contained in the main feed, with search front and center. This is your “Home” screen. To access your profile and history, to-do lists, and more – just swipe right.

“Our goal with the new Foursquare is to reveal more of the world around you the moment you open up the app, and help you find exactly what you’re craving,” says Foursquare.

And to that end, Foursquare has completely redesigned both their iOS and Android apps to help achieve what the company has been working toward the last couple of years – moving beyond the check-in.

You may have heard that phrase a lot in reference to Foursquare in the past year or so, and with good reason. Foursquare launched back in 2009 with a focus on check-ins – and that’s about it. You checked in, earned some points, and maybe unlocked a badge. Yes, the app had a small social networking element to it – in that you could track your friends’ check-ins and see how you stacked up on a points leaderboard. And yes, you could browse nearby places. But in 2009, nobody would have called Foursquare a “local search” app. And they certainly wouldn’t have called it a premier place for “local discovery.”

Like I said before, Foursquare hasn’t just launched version 6.0, with its heavy focus on local search and recommendations, out of the blue. There has been a long march to this new vision of Foursquare. Let’s look at that march, starting about a year ago when Foursquare unveiled the “all new Foursquare.”

That update brought a completely redesigned friend feed to the mix – with larger photos, more information on tips, comments, and the ability to “like” individual check-ins. But the real work was done on the Explore tab. Foursquare integrated even more of their millions of data points to give users a better idea about what was going on around them, and why they should frequent nearby locations. The Explore tab began to notify users of nearby specials, “top picks” that ranked venues on the popularity in the Foursquare community. They added new categories to search like “food,” “nightlife,” and “trending,” all of which relied heavily on you and your friends’ past check-in data.

“This isn’t just a fresh coat of paint, it’s a whole new app. And, as such, it’s just the beginning. We’ve got lots more coming…” said Foursquare at the time.

Shortly after that, Foursquare updated their app to improve the map and give it even more search categories. Then, they introduced a new kind of rating for venues – a number between 1 and 10 that is based on user likes. Later, they added a “recently opened” category to the Explore tab. A few weeks after that, location pages were improved with larger, highlighted location photos. In the past couple of months, Foursquare crammed even more recommendations onto the Explore tab and bolstered the info on venue pages.

See what I’m saying? Foursquare has made tons of small tweaks leading up to this new Foursquare, one that truly looks and feels like a culmination of Foursquare’s true goal of becoming a top local search and recommendation engine to compete with the likes of Yelp, Urbanspoon, and yes, Facebook.

Of course, Foursquare isn’t abandoning the check-in. The check-in is one of the metrics that powers the service. Without it, the whole recommendation engine falls apart. That’s why you’ll see an ever-present check-in icon front and center at the bottom of your feed at all times.

To survive, Foursquare cannot simply be about the check-in. It has to be more. This update shows that it is more – a lot more. But whether or not users recognize this is left to be seen. You can grab the update today in the App Store and Google Play.

Foursquare is now letting users check-in faster by employing a “tap and hold” feature in the app. Now, you can simply hold the place at which you’re checking-in (once accessed from the check-in icon at the top right) and Foursquare will check you in without taking you to the official check-in screen.

You can also tap and hold the blue check-in suggestion bar that pops up at the top of your feed when the app sense you’re nearby a certain location.

You’ll know it’s working by the green progress bar and the “Checking you in” status.

Although Foursquare has moved on to emphasizing other uses for their service (like as a true local search and discovery destination) and “moved beyond the check-in” as we all like to say, they still remind us that checking-in is vital to the service:

“Remember: each time you check in, you’re teaching us about the restaurants, bars, and shops you like, so we can give you even smarter recommendations in Explore. And now that it takes just a split-second, it’s even easier to check in everywhere you go,” they say.

Later, Foursquare and AMEX extended those deals, even launching them across the pond.

Now, Foursquare is making a move to expand these offers to more types of plastic.

The company has announced that they will be extending these types of specials with both Visa and MasterCard, and most debit cards to provide similar check-in offers alongside participating businesses.

Foursquare is working with payment solutions company First Data and CardSpring to expand the seamless specials.

The AMEX/Foursquare deal has morphed over time to start producing more revenue for Foursquare, and the company says that the new deals with Visa and MasterCard will earn them a fee for every offer redeemed. It’s unclear whether that will be a flat fee per offer claimed or some sort of percentage deal.

“This is going to be a pretty core part of our revenue model going forward,” said Foursquare Product Manager Noah Weiss.

According to AdAge, the first offer that should be available today involves $1 off for $10 spent at 8,000 participating Burger King locations.

Since this is going to be a “core part of the revenue model,” it shouldn’t surprise you that Foursquare is also making these credit card deals more prominent within the app.

All you’ll have to do is sync your Visa, MasterCard, or AMEX with your Foursquare account to start earning cashback on purchases made through the app.

The most popular place on Foursquare.

Today, Hartsfield-Jackson became the first location (of any type) to ever log 1 million check-ins. As of the writing of this article, Hartsfield-Jackson has 1,001,776 total check-ins from 280,746 different people. Foursquare users have also left nearly 2,500 tips for the airport and uploaded over 7,200 photos.

In honor of the milestone, Foursquare is sharing some interesting stats about the airport based on its 1 million+ check-ins.

For instance – Terminal B sees the most traffic, and Mondays is the busiest day to fly. One Flew South is the most popular restaurant inside the airport, and people love to look at a particular collection of Zimbabwean sculptures while they wait.

Foursquare has also provided a heatmap of check-ins at the airport, no doubt coming from their 500M check-in map project, just launched last month.

Cool stuff.

[Photo via]

Today, that partnership goes live as VMG content should now be integrated into Foursquare.

“A couple weeks ago, we announced our partnering with Voice Media Group to bring you a ton of great tips, lists, and tens of thousands of events related to arts, culture, and food in cities across the U.S. Today, you can see those events when you open up the app. To find great goings-on near you, just open up Explore and tap through to your favorite places. You’ll see things like gallery openings and author appearances, along with the movies, concerts, and sporting events we already show you,” says Foursquare in a blog post.

The new data from “Voices Places” and “Best Of” will be seen in over 50 different venue categories spread across 11 different markets. Those markets include New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, St. Louis, Miami, Minneapolis, Palm Beach, and Orange County.

So, when you’re browsing Foursquare and come across a venue in these major cities, you may just see some additional info like reviews, upcoming events, and other cool tips.

Foursquare used a ton of data to compile these lists – tips, likes, dislikes, popularity, local expertise, etc. What they’ve come up with is an incredibly useful set of top-10 lists spanning tons of different venue categories.

You can start browsing the Best of Foursquare today.

Let’s say that I’m traveling to Houston, TX, for instance. Once I click on Houston, I’m presented with top-10 lists for food, nightlife, “things to do,” and steakhouses (each city has a different overarching set of lists). Each entry displays a photo, number rating (out of 10), and additional info like how many people are currently there or whether or not you or a friend has checked-in there.

I can see that the top bar in the city, based on all the Foursquare data points, is the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium. I can either click on the venue to go to its details page or I can quick-save the place to my to-do list.

If I choose, I can also narrow the list to “Best of” nightlife: beer or “Best of” nightlife: music venues. Same goes for food, which I can narrow down to view the top 10 Asian restaurants or Mexican restaurants in each city.

“One of the things our data shows is how each city is unique: Bostonians love seafood, Portland is a veggie paradise, and Philly may be the city of brotherly love, but what they really love is a good sandwich. Since no two cities are the same, each page is customized to help you get a feel for the local flavor,” says Foursquare.

If your business made it onto one of Foursquare’s various “Best of” lists, congrats! You can download a badge to show of your status as a Foursquare elite here.

Today, Foursquare is announcing a new connected app – ProPublica’s Opportunity Gap.

When you check into a school, the app will give you a fact about the school: facts like “did you know 7% of students at PS 234 Independence School receive free or reduced lunch?”

You can then click through to access a more-detailed set of statistics like the number of students, teachers, AP courses offered, “inexperienced teachers,” and more.

“With their new Foursquare integration, you can connect your Foursquare account to instantly see statistics for schools you’ve checked in to before. And when you’re out, you can instantly get stats about a school on your phone whenever you check in to one. It’s a great example of how news organizations can use Foursquare to reach their readers with relevant information when they’re out in the real world,” says Foursquare.

“A year ago when we launched the first version of our “Opportunity Gap” news application, we tightly integrated Facebook in order to make it easy for readers to compare schools and share their school comparisons. Today’s relaunch adds Foursquare, along with adding a slew of new data to the app as well as algorithmically generate narratives by Narrative Science,” says ProPublica.

Data should be available for around 50,000 schools, they say.

You can connect your Foursquare account to the app and start receiving school info by going here.

Voice Media Group publishes regional magazines like the Dalas Observer, Miami New Times, L.A. Weekly, and Village Voice. They also run Voice Places, which features local reviews of restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues. They compile popular “best of” lists for nearly a dozen major U.S. markets.

Through the deal, data from “Voices Places” and “Best Of” will begin appearing on Foursquare in over 50 different venue categories spread across 11 different markets. Those markets include New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, St. Louis, Miami, Minneapolis, Palm Beach, and Orange County.

There will also be some new badges on Foursquare based on check-ins in these areas.

“Foursquare is all about making the most of where you are, so we are always looking to partner with top publishers to provide interesting and relevant content on a city’s history, culture, and events,” said Jonathan Crowley, Director of Media Partnerships at Foursquare. “Our partnership with Voice Media Group will help bring expert local content to the nearly 30 million people in the Foursquare community.”

It’s a symbiotic deal, as Voices Places will also integrate Foursquare content, like tips, mayor information, and other data.

“Content is king, and we feel that we have the best, most trusted, professionally curated local content in the country,” said Scott Tobias, CEO of Voice Media Group. “We are excited about this partnership with Foursquare, and we feel that it showcases the depth of our content across key verticals.”

[photo credit]

But the really interesting thing that Foursquare unveiled is a map of all of the check-ins (worldwide) over the last three months.

Foursquare did something similar to this back in November, following Hurricane Sandy. They created a timelapse visualization of how the storm affected check-ins in lower Manhattan.

But this new map allows you to zoom in and out on the entire world of check-ins, and even search for specific locations. You can even layer on satellite view and map view atop the check-in data. But it’s a lot more fun to simply look at cities’ structures based on check-ins alone.

For instance, my hometown of Lexington, KY is set up like a wheel with a bunch of spokes. A large road circles the city, and each main road spreads out from the center (downtown) and intersects that main highway. When you look at the city of Lexington on Foursquare’s check-in map, you see this pattern reflected (the main population centers and businesses appear on these roads).

Other, bigger cities also look really cool. Let’s look at Moscow:

You can play around with the check-in map here.

That map is based on check-ins from the last three months, which total 500,000,000. Yep, a half a billion check-ins in 3 months. That’s a pretty impressive figure.