The relaunch of Foursquare is a aimed directly against Yelp as the social location app player now lets users recommend places they visit.
The hope is that the relaunch will attract new users as well as advertising in order to compete against the larger players on the market.
Most analysts agree the new version is much simpler, says CEO Dennis Crowley. He said the system offer users the ability to narrow preferences more specifically than competitors, such as Yelp, and provides reviews from other users.
The new app also lets users know when they are near their destination.
The aim is the new app will allow businesses to place more visible ads on the app. The original app launched five years ago had one big key feature: the "check-in." That app has been moved to a new app called Swarm after the Foursquare app sputtered.
"We were so good at the check-in, people have forgotten we are really twice as good at local search," Crowley said in an interview. "Once you hit the mainstream, you really have to simplify these products. They have to be really good, really fast, really simple and really light."
The new app will sync with Swarm and the company hopes this app will revitalize the brand and attract more users of its search app, Tech Times reports.
Analysts question whether this rebranding will be successful, as there are a number of other apps and companies building them that will compete for the local space against Foursquare. Some of its users may simply go to a different service altogether.
