Of all of the improvements that have been made to CigarPlaces.com over the years, this may be one of the coolest when it comes to making the site more useful to those of us looking for a cigar friendly bar or restaurant.
View Foursquare Tips on CigarPlaces.com
As of today, when you browse to a cigar friendly place on CigarPlaces.com, you’ll see tips from Foursquare users about the location. The site will also display who the mayor of the location is (the person who has checked in most frequently at the location).
Why is this such a big improvement?
As 
Foursquare’s popularity and user base continues to grow rapidly, it is proving itself to be a useful source of real-time, local information about venues. For example, the venue used in the example to the right (336 Main in Plymouth, Michigan) includes the tips:
- Best early/mid-day patio sun. No food, but you can order carry out from Compari’s, they’ll even deliver it to you on the patio.
- Steve Acho at the piano tonight w/ Karen Newman. Awesome show.
- Hip little martini bar that offers a vast array of martini concoctions and light hors d’oeuvres. free lot nearby (back of establishment).
This is useful stuff! Someone who has never visited 336 Main now knows where to park, when to go, and where they can get some food to compliment their cigar (Compari’s is an extremely good Italian restaurant, btw).
Any time we can get more information about cigar friendly bars and restaurants around the world, we see it as a great improvement.
If you haven’t heard of Foursquare
It’s time to jump on board. Foursquare is a simple smartphone application that allows you to check in to places you visit. Checking in shows your friends (people who you’ve granted access to your profile) where you are at any given time.
Foursquare just raised its latest round of venture capital ($20M) to continue its expansion (according to the WSJ – June 29th, 2010). The service is approaching 1.8 million users, and is continuing to expand rapidly.
Because of the geo-location aspect of the application and the security risks that come along with displaying your location to people, do some research before you start using it and determine what your personal guidelines will be (for example, everyone gets added to my Twitter account, some get added to my Facebook page, a select few get added as Foursquare friends).
What’s the Catch?
As Foursquare’s popularity spreads like wildfire, a lot of people are jumping on the integration bandwagon (like CigarPlaces.com). Because of this, you may experience situations where you pull up a location on CigarPlaces.com and Foursquare information isn’t displayed. We’re getting the data for free, so we can’t complain!
