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A rundown between Google's Places API and Foursquare's Venues Project. Apologies to other platforms, but these are the two I'm most familiar with =). (Disclaimer: I was an engineer at Google for six years before becoming Foursquare's Platform Evangelist)Before I start, let me say that both platforms are fantastic assets to developers. It's now significantly easier for developers to add a location aspect to their applications with minimal effort. For example, SCVNGR uses the Google Places API and Instagram uses the Foursquare API.Rate LimitsGoogle defaults to 1,000 requests/day. If you enable billing (requires credit card verification) you receive 100,000 requests/day. Thor Mitchell's answer to What are the pros and cons of each ‘places’ API, ie. Foursquare versus Google? indicates you can contact them if you need more.Foursquare defaults to 5,000 requests/hour (120,000 /day). You can also ask for an increased limit of up to 50,000 requests/hour (1,200,000 / day). If more than that is needed, we're happy to discuss how to make that happen.Foursquare also has the concept of "user" access -- i.e API requests made on the behalf of a foursquare end-user (via OAuth). These requests have a rate limit of 500 requests/user/hour, so the number of supported requests grows linearly with the number of foursquare users that authenticate/use your application.CostBoth services are offered free of charge (with the currently published rate limits)Speed & Availability: Don't actually have hard numbers on this, butGoogle invests heavily in both for all their services so it's safe to say that their service has great numbers for both.Foursquare's public API is the same one used by its official mobile applications (i.e. the foursquare app for Android, iPhone, Blackberry, etc.). The API probably doesn't have as high availability as Google's, but it's reasonably stable (with multiple engineers tending to it) as the API is critical for foursquare's core product/business. (Like all of foursquare, the API is hosted on Amazon's EC2 service)CoverageGoogle has 50MM places in their database according to Thor Mitchell's answer. Because they license this data, it's fairly safe to say their coverage in all major markets is strong.Foursquare has over 30MM places in its database and growing. Because foursquare's data is user generated, coverage is strong in areas with good foursquare penetration, and less good in areas with less of a foursquare presence. Foursquare's data is oriented around places people go to; so more new restaurants and fewer doctors/locksmiths.Accuracy: This is getting pretty subjective, so do note my bias on the matter =)Google's database is largely from licensed providers whose business model is to provide "authoritative" information. These sources are often out-of-date, but what data they do have is generally reliable. If your application pushes check-ins to the Places API, then these check-ins are used to boost search results.Foursquare's database is crowd-sourced, so its listings are often more up-to-date, but there are many artifacts of this process in the form of duplicate or "fake" listings. Listings are moderated by a community of "superusers" with special editing powers (think editors on Wikipedia). Results are boosted by foursquare check-in data, so all consumers benefit from one the richest sources of realtime check-ins.Both allow merchants to "claim" their listing and easily update the listing data. Foursquare has over 750,000 claimed venues.Update frequencyGoogle allows you to submit listings which are immediately visible to your application and may someday be visible to other applications. Otherwise new information comes from the listings providers mentioned earlier.Foursquare allows you to submit listings which are (currently) immediately visible to all applications. New information comes from foursquare users or any other application built on top of the foursquare API.AttributionGoogle's data is licensed, so provider attribution in any consumer app is required where necessary. Places API consumers must also show either a Google Map with the results or a 159 × 24 "powered by Google" image.Foursquare's data is owned by foursquare. We require attribution, which can take a variety of forms, ranging from displaying a "powered by foursquare" logo to plain text offered contextually near foursquare data. See https://developer.foursquare.com/overview/attribution.htmlRetentionGoogle forbids caching/storing content except for performance purposes. They make an exception for content identifiers/keys. See section 10.1.3 of http://code.google.com/apis/maps/terms.htmlFoursquare limits caching/storing of Foursquare places information to 30 days, after which you must be sure to refresh the data. You may hold on to identifiers/keys (i.e. the venue ID) for longer. https://foursquare.com/legal/apiplatformpolicyCategoriesGoogle's categories are a mapping of category data received from various listing providers into a single list of categories. These categories can be considered "verified," in that they generally stem from a "trustworthy" classification source.Foursquare's categories are suggested and applied by its user community. This means that classifications are not "verified" but are instead maintained by our "superusers" (see above). Blatant bias: Foursquare's category hierarchy is more structured/meaningful than the Google Places hierarchy. Compare http://aboutfoursquare.com/foursquare-categories/ to http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/places/supported_types.htmlBoth APIs let you filter results by category type.Database changes: Each API has a very different approaches to identityGoogle returns two types of markers for a listing: an "id" and a "reference." An id is suitable for equality testing, whereas a reference is held on to by the application for retrieving information about a place in a future. You are given a new reference value (even for the same logical listing) with every search request. You can only look up venues directly via reference. A referenced place may have its id change over time as listings are merged, separated, etc.Foursquare returns a single id for a listing. That id will always be valid for retrieving information, but the returned object may have a different id (i.e. the old listing was merged with a different listing and other id stuck).Feel free to suggest other points of comparison; these are the ones that immediately came to mind when reviewing the Google Places API launch last week.

In order to comprehend the changes in design we must begin by understanding where it is that we see these designs. If we look back, prior to the digital age, 'flat, minimal' designs were dominant. This articlehttp://nextshark.com/airbnb-beats-hootsuite-copied-logos-from-same-book/points out that in 1989 various designs (which were used as an inspiration by some major brands today, to say the least) used the flat style. Why? Because they were designed to be printed, and more specifically to be printed by presses that would probably fail to print many skeumorphic designs due to their more intricate nature. Fast forward to the following decade and suddenly computer screens have more pixels, more colours, and the design process is no longer restricted by the printing press. Designers wanted to showcase the abilities of these machines. It was not vulgar to depict a parchment-like paper on the screen, it was impressive.Let us look at Apple for a moment. More specifically Apple in the last decade What happened in this period? 2007 saw the release of the first iPhone, and if we take a look at the icons, they are not flat at all.​In fact, they are heavily skeumorphic. Looking back today we might argue that they are less nuanced - but remember that a home page comprised of icons on a screen the size of a credit card was not the norm; and the move to these more elaborate designs was a vital stepping stone. This was very much the case across the board, with earlier versions of Windows, or Android. Additionally, the design language was eager to compensate for the digital nature of these applications. This is now your calculator, see how it looks like the calculator you had on your desk? This calendar, it's reliable, it even looks like the paper you used to use.Fast forward to 2010 and suddenly the mobile phone industry looks very different. Such a behemoth, the design industry has been forced to follow suite. Suddenly mobile platforms lead the way, (most notably demonstrated by a more iOS-like Mac interface). But technological changes have occurred, too. Screens are higher resolution, bigger, brighter. Those icons no longer need to be so flagrant, or have the need to.iber compensate. We all.kmow that our calculator lives on our phones now, so let us make it more efficient. Over in Android the flat design is taken even further, in what would become known as Material design. It's now about simplicity, about consistency.​These have been factors that have very much led the way with the move to more flat designs. However there are various other factors. Taste, and influence from other art forms, plays a large role. When a design is too reminiscent of a certain period, designers may refrain from using it. Psychological elements that you experience yourself. Go into your app store and browse through various apps: see those skeumorphic icons? Those do not look very appealing - perhaps because they remind us of a more primitive technological age. It's instictual, but it is also cyclical, as the 1989 flat logos prove. There was backlash when Instagram announced the new logo, but there was no denying that it was the last of the digital titans to still present a design that was too regressed for the more crisp design age of today.​

I’ve had several remote jobs. I just started a new job that is almost 100% remote. Let’s see:Laptop: Yes. It arrived at the main office, where they configured it, installed all necessary applications, and whatnot. I went in and picked it up since it’s 5 minutes away. They could have easily shipped it to me.Mouse: No. Unnecessary with a laptop (it has that sensor pad thing), but I have several spare mice laying around. I just use one of my spares.Notepad: No. I don’t really use one anymore. Everything—even notes—are electronic. If I really need a notepad, I can just get my own. I also have some laying around.Water bottle: Heavens, no. Why would I need a water bottle? What, does it have the company’s logo on it or something? Even if it did, it would just wind up as clutter. No thanks. I use real glasses at home.I’m not opposed to company swag (e.g. the water bottle), but I’d prefer something useful like a flash drive, flashlight or really nice pen. One company gave me a great letterman jacket with the company’s logo (I still have it, 20+ years later!). Please don’t send me garbage that I’ll end up throwing away.One thing you didn’t mention was:Laptop case: One employer gave me a really nice leather laptop case with a shoulder strap. That was a nice bonus, but I don’t really need one anymore. I just use my SwissGear backpack for all my laptops these days.Mine is similar to this one, but I rarely load it so full of junk (image credit)