Summary: News: Foursquare revamps business pages to take on Yelp as web visitors hit 50 million per month As Foursquare has evolved from friend-finder to expansive recommendations engine,Yelp has emerged as the company’s most formidable enemy. Foursquare’s mobile apps have for some time stood head and shoulders above Yelp’s, but there was always one area where Foursquare lagged: the web. Today, a big update on Foursquare's web app hopes to change that — a fresh coat of paint that front-loads Foursquare's top selling points over its rival. "This is the place to make a first impression," says Foursquare’s lead web engineer Mike Singleton. 50 million people come to the site every month, which is an astounding number compared to the 33 million users Foursquare says it has. A large portion of that traffic comes from Google, Singleton says, and that’s where he sees the greatest opportunity to earn new users. In fact, the number of referrals from Google has doubled in the last year, and that trend is expected to continue. Despite ballooning web user numbers, the site had not seen a significant visual update since November 2011. Foursquare’s new business pages are far more colorful, and put a much greater emphasis on the areas where Foursquare stands out: its ability to generate relationships between similar places and judge appeal based on hundreds of signals like check-ins and likes. The service has to some extent evolved into Pandora, but for restaurants and bars. The tough part is creating pages that work for both "super users" and for the increasing number of people flocking in from Google searches. These are two very different kinds of people, Singleton says. http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/23/4256192/foursquare-revamps-business-pages-50-million-web-visitors Cry for Verizon to kill contracts grows louder A petition from Change.org needs just 30,000 more signatures before it can take it to Verizon. The calls for Verizon Wireless to drop the contract are getting louder. The petition posted on Change.org calling for Verizon to kill off its contract model has garnered nearly 120,000 signatures, with 25,000 signatures added over the weekend alone. It only needs another 30,000 before it can take it to the company. The petition was created by Verizon customer Mike Beauchamp on April 7 after Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam told CNET on the sidelines of an event held earlier this month that he would consider moving to a no-contract model if consumers demanded it, and said the process to shift to no-contracts wouldn't be difficult. The comments came shortly after T-Mobile dropped service contracts and subsidies as part of its "Uncarrier" campaign. Under the new plans, consumers pay the full price for their smartphones, but pay a lower monthly rate for cellular service, ultimately saving consumers money. A Verizon representative noted that the company already offers a month-to-month plan that requires customers to pay the full cost of a device upfront. "Verizon Wireless has for years offered many different choices for customers, including contract plans or month-to-month plans that do not require a contract," the representative said. In addition to eliminating the contract, Beauchamp challenged Verizon to come up with an affordable way for consumers to pay for that smartphone. He added that a no-contract model is a better reflection of the faster moving wireless industry, and noted that he didn't start the petition because of any dissatisfaction with the service. "I've been a long-time Verizon customer and I don't see myself ever leaving; but I want that choice myself; I don't want them making it for me and imposing stiff penalties if I do decide to leave," he said in the petition. T-Mobile, for instance, has changed the model by charging a smaller upfront fee and a monthly payment that covers the cost of the device over 24 months. Consumers can pay in advance. They can also leave whenever they want,
