Foursquare, without ratings, serves a different use case than Yelp. I use Yelp to find a place to go. Once I'm there, I (sometimes, but not usually) check Foursquare for menu recommendations.
If I'm going out with friends, I don't want to put too much weight on my own tastes, I want to pick a place that has a high likelihood of appealing to everyone. Ratings are a good proxy for that – I don't have the time or the knowledge to filter tips by my friends' preferences.
Does the new Foursquare solve this? If not, then it can't compete with Yelp. If it does, was it worth the cost of losing future check-in data (due to less than 100% adoption of Swarm)?
As an aside, how are users' check-ins being used to inform recommendations? I would argue that they shouldn't – I've never heard of anyone just checking in on Foursquare to places they like, I think most people use Foursquare as a personal record and as a way to let friends know where they've been.
If I'm going out with friends, I don't want to put too much weight on my own tastes, I want to pick a place that has a high likelihood of appealing to everyone. Ratings are a good proxy for that – I don't have the time or the knowledge to filter tips by my friends' preferences.
Does the new Foursquare solve this? If not, then it can't compete with Yelp. If it does, was it worth the cost of losing future check-in data (due to less than 100% adoption of Swarm)?
As an aside, how are users' check-ins being used to inform recommendations? I would argue that they shouldn't – I've never heard of anyone just checking in on Foursquare to places they like, I think most people use Foursquare as a personal record and as a way to let friends know where they've been.