Foursquare makes their “Save to Foursquare” button useful for publishers

More than a year ago, foursquare introduced the “Add to Foursquare” button, aiming to get publishers to add the badges to their reviews to make it easy for foursquare users to add them to their to-do lists. Each button was cumbersome to implement, so very few publishers made regular use of them.
Foursquare today is finally making those buttons easier to implement — and they’re adding a useful tool for foursquare users, too. It makes it very easy to add content you find around the web directly to your foursquare to-do list so you can be reminded of it later. I do this very often, so anything that makes it simpler is a welcome change.
The new “Save” buttons that foursquare is rolling out allow publishers to add them to their templates once. When visitors click the “Save,” the button searches for any location that’s mentioned on the page — whether it’s a store, restaurant, concert hall, or anything in between — and prompts them to add the venue to one of their lists.
If they choose their to-do lists and have Radar enabled, they’ll be reminded to check in there. It will include the publisher’s branding and a link back to the original article, so you can quickly remind yourself why you put the place on your to-do list in the first place.
The buttons are rolling out today on partner sites like Frommer’s Travel, Eater.com, Time Out NY, Time Out Boston, Time Out Chicago, Time Out NY Kids, New York Magazine, CBS Local Digital Media and AskMen.com. The code is available for any publisher to begin using today. Sites that already use the hCard or OpenGraph formats will find it very easy to implement. Two different sizes are available.
For foursquare users, a new bookmarklet has also been created. Clicking it will do the same thing as the “Save” button, but for any page on the internet. You’ll be able to quickly add places to your to-do list on any page you stumble across, whether they’re hip to foursquare or not. (UPDATE: the bookmarklet and matching Chrome extension are now available here.)
Brands will also be able to embed a foursquare “follow” button on their sites that’s similar to Twitter’s follow button.
With foursquare becoming a household name, it’s likely we’ll see these buttons rolling out to many sites — especially those offering any sort of location-based content — just as we’ve seen Like, Tweet and +1 buttons added virtually everywhere. It’s a great, easy way for brands to extend their reach beyond their sites and on to foursquare. In addition, these buttons are nice for large chains who can add them to their store locators so customers will be able to save a specific location directly to their phones.

Via: AboutFoursquare