Foursquare recently announced a special “universities edition,” and Stanford is among the company’s first 20 college partners trying to facilitate social connections and event publicity on campus.

The mobile-phone social networking application allows users to update their physical locations by “checking in” at events and addresses. By syncing with other social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter, Foursquare lets its users track their friends’ favorite campus landmarks.

The idea behind Stanford’s Foursquare page is that campus-specific information should help students and faculty feel more connected socially by giving them better access to information about events and places. Once a user has “checked in” to a location, he or she can write reviews and leave insider tips for other users to see, creating a collaborative, user-modified review book.

But will students use it?

Some say other social-networking sites hold more unique and important socializing features.

“I would try out the application to look at different events on campus and to find out about food places<\p>–<\p>more as an information resource than for social networking,” explained Rebecca Amato ’14, who recently downloaded Foursquare on her iPhone. “I would look to other social networking sites like Facebook to feel connected.”

Socializing is not the only purpose of the service, however. While Foursquare primarily focuses on information exchange, users can also participate in a rewards system based on their check-in histories. Each “check-in” earns a badge and a number of points depending on the location.

For example, a user who checks in to a particular location most often may become the Foursquare “mayor” of that place. Another user who collects the most locations in a week can obtain the “adventurer badge.” While the points and badges are largely virtual rewards, they provide real-world benefits as well. Businesses can use Foursquare to track customer traffic, potentially giving their loyal patrons special discounts and rewards.

“I think if you’re able to scan or use your discount directly from your phone without printing it out, that would be beneficial, like PayPal is doing,” said Jeremy Fine ’13. “However, if the service requires you to print out the discount in order to reap the benefit, it is unlikely to be used by many people.”

One Stanford business, Fraiche Yogurt, has already taken advantage of Foursquare’s customer tracking as a consumer incentive. Foursquare “mayors” of Fraiche get their first yogurt topping free with proof of their status.

The application just began to gather a following. Because the application’s benefits depend heavily upon the core number of users willing to “check in” and write reviews, building its consumer base on campus will be crucial to Foursquare’s success.

Currently, 50 businesses and 35 other location tags have been added to the Stanford page, along with 45 insider tips and users continuing to post each day.