Foursquare Explore now available to non-members on the web

Foursquare has thrown open its doors to non-members with a small tweak to its Explore feature. The tweak will help you share search results with your contacts, even if you're not a member of the site.

This is a small but sure start for the location-based social networking website for attracting potential customers who are looking for reviews and recommendations of places nearby.

Sharing details about your favourite Chinese restaurant or hangout joint is now easy with Foursquare. To use this feature, head over to www.foursquare.com/explore. Fill in the kind of place you’re looking for and to narrow down the search results, adjust the details so you're shown only the places you’ve been to, never been to, or places your friends have been to. You can also let Foursquare detect your location and recommend places. After you're satisfied with the search results, you will notice a share button on the top-right corner of the panel.

Sharing made easy!

Using this button, you can easily share the results page with your friends via IM, Facebook or Twitter. However, if you wish to share the venue details, Foursquare will prompt you to join the site by registering or signing in via Facebook.

Earlier this month, Foursquare rolled out updates for its mobile apps, which let you share Foursquare data with people who were not members. It makes a lot of sense for Foursquare to make this option available on the web as non-users will be more inclined to check out results via the web.

Foursquare this month updated its Android app to include an option that let you discover places nearby. The "Explore" option was moved to the top of the home screen to allow users to find a place instantly. Users have to tap the search bar and input search words such as “nachos”, “Mexican”, or “margaritas”, or look through categories such as coffee, food and nightlife.

Another addition to the app was the "Drawer" option. It replaced the three tabs at the bottom of the user interface. Users can now tap the top left corner of the screen and view their profiles, lists and settings on the Android app.

With this one move, Foursquare has swiftly moved out of being just an app with check-ins, points and mayorships being the main agenda to focusing on simple and pure discovery. You can think of the service as Google Maps, but with more customised options to find new places to visit. Thanks to this new feature, Foursquare could be looking at a horde of new users signing up for a more personalised experience of discovery.