Uber Partners With Foursquare to Combine Local Search and Transportation
Uber has continued a string of search-based partnerships, including Microsoft and YP, that will ostensibly give the car service app a leg up over Lyft and local cab services.
Uber has formed yet another partnership, this time with local search recommendation app, Foursquare, that will give the car service an even greater advantage over competitors like Lyft and Curb.
The Foursquare and Uber partnership promises to combine local search with local transportation. The Foursquare app offers recommendation for restaurants, reservations, and nightlife based on user preferences and crowdsourced reviews. Now, the app will also offer a ride.
When Foursquare users choose a destination, they’ll be offered the option to “Ride There With Uber,” a push button feature that will connect users to the car of their choice without ever leaving the Foursquare app.
In a post on Uber’s blog, Noah Weiss, vice president of Product Management at Foursquare, explained that the addition of Uber was a natural extension of the app’s pre-existing mapping features.
“If that next great spot isn’t right around the corner, we provide directions to help you get to your destination. Now, we are giving you a simple way to call an Uber from the app – making it easier than ever to find the perfect place just for you,” Weiss wrote.
The partnership also seems to be a natural step in Uber’s attempt to get a leg-up on fierce, often heated, rivalries with other car services like Lyft and even local taxi drivers. In April, Uber unveiled its partnership with Microsoft to use Cortana voice search in order to integrate Uber with Outlook, adding Uber to Cortana’s list of voice commands and ride notifications to Outlook calendars.
This was soon coupled with Uber’s integration with YP, adding a “Ride There With Uber” button to local search results.
Foursquare is kicking off the partnership by offering a limited amount of free rides to new users.
