Foursquare is squaring off against Yelp, and has become a “mobile, socially powered version of Yelp," as Fast Company puts it, thanks to the Explore tool that gives users dining and bar recommendations based on location check-in.

Add the latest tweak to the tool, a proximity-based finder for maps that zooms and can be dragged and pinched at will, and Foursquare’s search iterates from present to future location. The sophistication of the app's user interface puts it ahead of Google Maps, MenuPages, Urban Spoon and Yelp.

Foursquare recently partnered with Open Table, adding a reservations function that covers more than 15,000 restaurants including hours of business and menu perusal.Continue reading...

American Airlines sees unions support merger with US Airways.

CW rankles TV stations by rushing shows to web.

Chipotle pays attention to ingredients and boosts profits.

Cracker Barrel makes more moves to streamline.

Foursquare eyes June for launch of new advertising platform.

GE out-earns analysts' expectations on gains in energy business.

Hulu unveils four original series.

News Corp. faces dozens more hacking lawsuits.Continue reading...

The new Doritos have a larger-than-life flavor, so what better way for PepsiCo's snack brand to introduce them to the world than with a larger-than-life "vending machine"?

At the cauldron of brand and music and digital fervor that is the annual SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, Doritos is unveiling its latest innovation: Doritos Jacked tortilla chips, which are 40 percent larger than conventional Doritos and come in two flavors, Enchilada Supreme and Smokey Chipotle BBQ. As it's been promoting on Twitter and Facebook, Doritos promises that Jacked Tortilla chips (hitting stores on March 26th) will deliver a "one-two punch of intense flavors up front, followed by a twist of spice or tanginess that packs the ultimate crunch."

To drive home the point, Doritos is promoting the Jacked chip line with a 56-foot-high vending machine at SXSW. Consumers at the festival, while sampling the new chips, can get "larger-than-life Doritos-branded quarters" via Foursquare and Twitter.Continue reading...

The London 2012 Summer Olympics organizers are getting ready to do battle against ambush marketers, the stealth marketing and advertising that undermines official sponsors' efforts. It's an issue that's top of mind for LOCOG — the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games — and social networks are ready to help.

“Twitter has agreed to prevent brands from using the social network for Olympic 'ambush marketing' attempts,” according to eConsultancy. LOCOG has signed £670m ($1 billion) in sponsorship deals so it doesn’t want any of those partners getting upset about nonsponsors stealing their thunder during the Games.Continue reading...

American Express announced an innovative social media integration with Twitter this week, enabling US cardmembers to turn customized Twitter hashtags into savings via sync.americanexpress.com. Promoted with the tagline “Sync. Tweet. Save.” the social marketing promotion is the most direct use of Twitter to date by a brand that creates a real utility for customers: couponless savings loaded directly to their synced cards and automatically delivered in a credit statement.

“With Twitter, we’ve really hit the trifecta. We have a great platform in Twitter,” said Ed Gilligan, Vice Chairman, American Express. “We know our cardmembers are engaged in Twitter. We’ve been working with them to think about how can we help them move from conversations to commerce. To turn a tweet into a transaction.”

Brands trying out Amex Sync include Best Buy, McDonald’s, Whole Foods Market, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Century 21, The Cheesecake Factory, Dell, FedEx Office, FTD, Gulf, H&M, Seamless.com, Sports Authority, Ticketmaster, Virgin America and Zappos. They'll be closely watching the analytics on this test, with the Amex Synch API offering also supplying reports to merchants about customer spending, online and offline.

And if they're in Austin for SXSW on March 12th, they can celebrate at a concert featuring Jay-Z.Continue reading...

Apple stock price looms large as iPad 3 (aka iPad HD) debut nears, and the company is sued by a firm that has a patent deal with Microsoft.

Boston Beer expands beyond Sam Adams.

BT and TalkTalk lose case against UK's anti-piracy legislation.

Chevy Volt woes may take solace from Toyota Prius.

Dunkin' Donuts brings pork doughnuts and LeBron James to China.

GM and Peugeot cement alliance.

Geneva International Auto Show opens amid slump in European car sales as Volkswagen shows off a Bentley concept SUV.

Jack Daniels opens "drinking school" with Zac Brown Band.Continue reading...

Socialbakers, the most cited source for global Facebook data with over 5 million Facebook pages and places indexed, has just released a study highlighting social media effectiveness, coinciding with LeWeb’11, Europe’s premiere tech conference in Paris (taking place December 7-9).

Since its 2008 launch, Socialbakers has become the “most widely visited site for Facebook statistics and brand metrics,” and is now adding to its portfolio YouTube analytics and monitoring for Google+ brand page.

Findings showcase the companies with the largest social media presence across the major social networks. Topline observations include:

• Google on Facebook has a 2X higher engagement rate than Facebook itself.
• Facebook, Best Buy, Google, Nokia and Intel have the highest engagement rates in social and digital media.
• Foursquare made the top 15 but has an unexpected low user engagement against its competitors.
• Intel, Dell, Nokia, Foursquare, Facebook and Google are with engagement and adoption of Google+.

“From the findings, we see that companies need to think more about engagement and Google+. Little steps like posting once a day to Facebook will give optimal engagement. Companies need help understanding the data, what works and how they can improve,” said Jan Rezab, CEO of Socialbakers in a release.Continue reading...

CNN set off a firestorm of speculation when it reported Friday that Facebook had acquired Gowalla, the location-based check-in mobile app similar to Foursquare.

Facebook declined to comment, but Josh Williams, Gowalla founder and CEO did not deny the deal in an email to AllThingsD on Sunday, writing, “The ink on the deal is not dry, so our holding pattern is that we do not comment on rumours and speculation. I have another email penned that was ready to send you today, assuming you would get this news before the story was officially released. But now it is all over Twitter, so you have likely heard. A longer email will be sent soon.”

Turns out, as Business Insider reports and a Gowalla blog post confirms, that the Gowalla team is indeed joining Facebook — but not the brand itself, which will be killed off in order to supercharge the timeline feature on Facebook, whose own Facebook Places check-in function launched last year but never took off.Continue reading...