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What company is generating Google-style analytics for the real world?

Answer: Foursquare

Foursquare, the app that once upon a time let users “check-in” online to real-world locations and now serves as primarily a search engine for retailers, restaurants and local services, is leveraging its built-in API platform and location intelligence to create what CEO Jeff Gleuck is calling the “Google Analytics of the world.”

Just like Google tracks online users’ travels around the Web, Foresquare Analytics will use data from users’ smartphones to generate reports on metrics like how often a certain demographic visits a location, or what foot traffic looks like in suburban shopping malls versus urban streets. When Foursquare users, as well as users of its companion social media app Swarm, opt in to background location tracking, all the info of when they walk in to and out of a retailer or restaurant is pushed to the analytics bank. Retailers, such as early partners H&M, TGI Fridays and Taco Bell, can then use that aggregated data to improve their services and their bottom lines.