Foursquare is joining the OpenStreetMap movement

[Lurker]

for people who use foursquare, this is their announcement back at 29 Feb, :

we’re embracing the OpenStreetMap movement, so all the maps you see when you go to foursquare.com will look a tiny bit different (we think the new ones are really pretty). Other than slightly different colors and buttons, though, foursquare is still the same site you know and love.

why they move from Google maps to OSM, here the expnalation :

We’ve been using the Google Maps API since the early days of foursquare. In the last six months, though, we’ve seen an increasing number of companies migrating to other options. So, during our January hackathon, one of our intrepid engineers wondered what the world would look like if we made our own maps. To do that, he used data from OpenStreetMap. (It’s a crowd-sourced global atlas, and it’s kind of amazing! It’s like Wikipedia for geography.) We love the idea of open data, and were happy to try it out.

and maybe because Google API starting to take charge, as you may find in their sites  :evil:

Source : foursquare blog

[hariasa]

Interestingly, Apple makes a similar move by getting rid of Google from their new iPhoto app. It's OpenStreetMap now.

[EmperoR]

maybe because of this :

Starting in 2012, Google will begin charging for heavy use of its Maps API. Google says that it will charge for use of its Maps for anything over 25,000 loads per day. For smaller sites, this poses no additional cost. For bigger sites, such as Tripadvisor, will face a sizeable charge of $4 to $10 per 1,000 loads over 25,000.

Apple and foursquare affected by this , as google said :

Google says that this won't affect the majority of the sites using its Maps API. It claims that the new pricing will only affect "the top 0.35% sites."

foursquare and apple sure one of those 0,35% ahahahahahaha  :laugh: