Foursquare

Foursquare is celebrating its third-annual 4sqDay in impressive fashion.

Whenever users check in on the service today, they'll be awarded the 2012 4sqDay badge, which is accompanied with a message announcing that the startup now has 20 million users worldwide, and has hit a whopping 2 billion check-ins since it was founded in 2009.

"In 2010, Foursquare fans declared April 16 4sqDay (4/4^2 - nerds after our own heart!)," the message that accompanies the badge reads. "Two years and two billion check-ins later, you're still why we get out of bed each day. … Read more

Richard, our studio engineer, is the inspiration for today's show title that goes along with a story about his old Dumpster-diving days, when he'd raid the Hostess factory at the end of the night to recover "old" Twinkies and Ho Hos.

Jeff faced childhood memories of his own this weekend while cleaning out his old closet, unearthing treasures like Palm Pilots, two Sega Dreamcasts, and a box of old CD jewel cases. If you don't know what those things are, you're too young to be listening to The 404.… Read more

Moscow-based I-Free and its app Girls Around Me crystallized the online privacy debate this week, and, I suspect, will begin the end of our long era of digital naivete.

It's as though the online community has been living in the Garden of Eden all these recent years, and we're all taking a bite of the apple all at once. There are consequences to our behaviors: companies that rely on our data to make their money are not going to suddenly start protecting that data. It's time for you and me to get serious about what we put … Read more

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

The developer of a controversial Foursquare app designed to locate nearby women defended the app, saying its goals are misunderstood.

The Girls Around Me app, which used Foursquare and Facebook data to automatically pinpoint the location of specific women near users, was blocked by Foursquare after a firestorm of criticism over user privacy. The popular check-in service said the app's access to its API was shut down because it violated its policy against aggregating user data across venues.

Russian developer i-Free Innovations insisted in a statement that the app, which many blogs criticized as creepy and stalking, used publicly … Read more

The tagline is "In the mood for love, or just after a one-night stand? Girls Around Me puts you in control! Reveal the hottest nightspots, who's in them, and how to reach them..."

For a lot of people, this sounds like an app made in heaven, but the fact that the service used Foursquare and Facebook data to automatically pinpoint the location of specific women near users has even more people freaking out, writes Cult of Mac.

Now, in response to the uproar about the app, Foursquare has apparently shut down the app's access to its … Read more

Foursquare is one of a number of Web sites jumping ship from Google Maps to an open-source alternative. You can put a good part of the blame on Google's hefty licensing fees.

A wide variety of sites use Google Maps on their own pages to pinpoint locations, offer directions, and provide other travel info. But according to The New York Times, the fees charged by Google for the privilege can easily run into six figures.

A recent blog posted by the Web site StreetEasy confirmed a price tag of $200,000 to $300,000 shelled out each year to … Read more

The free iPhone photo sharing app that boasts users such as President Obama, skateboarder Tony Hawk, singer Justin Bieber, actress Zooey Deschanel, and rapper Snoop Dogg might be getting new funding that will value it at $500 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.

One year ago, Instagram was valued at just $25 million. Despite this enormous growth and a base of more than 15 million users, the popular app has struggled to make money since its inception in March 2010.

Unlike other apps and social-networking sites, Instagram isn't well positioned to feature advertising, paid content, or other e-commerce … Read more

First things first. Take a deep breath. And now repeat the process.

OK, you're off to Austin, Texas, for South by Southwest Interactive, a five-day bacchanalia of panels, keynotes, parties, barbeque feasts, beer-soaked networking, and maybe even a little sleep. Just remember, if you want to be taken seriously there, don't call it South by Southwest. It's "South-by," or, in written form, "SXSW."

If you've never been before, it's OK to be stressed about what you've gotten yourself into. I've been six times, and I'm totally overwhelmed. And … Read more