Foursquare helps you search for stuff your friends like

In January 2012, Foursquare announced the Explore feature, which leveraged its 1.5 billion checkins into personalised recommendations for users. By collating millions of tips,  Foursquare now allows you to search for places you’ve and for your friends have visited, but also placed you haven’t been or that have a foursquare special deal.

Here’s what Foursquare had to say about Explore:

"The vision for foursquare is much much bigger – it’s about adding an ‘interesting’ layer to the whole world, tailored just for you...Whether you’re planning a night out in your neighborhood or a vacation in Europe, what should you do? Which of your friends should you ask about things? How can you save money? Where can you easily find great places you’ve never been to? How do you search for personalized recommendations in the real world."

When you visit Explore and login to your account, you see a Google map and various search options.

The results then display all of the data you and your friends have given over the years you have been checking-in to locations. If you’re looking for a beer in your area, you’ll be shown a map of all of the local bars and pubs, along with user generated content about them including tips, photos and visitor comments.

It looks like Foursquare has finally worked out a highly valuable way of using all the data it has been collecting from us for years. It’s also in a great position to monetise the killer app by replicating Google’s search and selling busineses a pay-per-click paid listing that would show at the top of the search results.