One of the World’s largest location sharing application for the mobile devices, FourSquare has been making some news off late. The company has decided to move on to OpenStreetMap, dropping the use of Google Maps API. This comes in partnership with a startup named MapBox. The new startup is completely into making custom maps using the OpenStreetMaps, that the FourSquare thinks would help them in many ways. Talking about the new makeover, FourSquare says:

“We love the idea of supporting open data through OpenStreetMap, and MapBox gives us greater flexibility on tile design for custom maps. And while OpenStreetMap has come a long way, there’s still a bit of work to be done to create an atlas of the whole world (the world is pretty huge). But we’re extremely excited about what we’re building towards,”

Using the MapBox’s Streets API, FourSquare is expected to make some modifications and improvements to the maps that are used in the application. However, the mobile applications would still use the Google Maps API for now, since these apps have got a tight integration with the original OS’ maps APIs.

FourSquare has also joined hands with Leaflet library, which promises to deliver high-performance mappings and improvements to the mobile platforms, enabling closer integration with OpenStreetMaps and MapBox Streets for FourSquare.

Naveen Selvadurai Checks out

While FourSquare made its’ move to the new OpenStreetsMap and other enhancements to its platform, the company’s Co-Founder, Naveen Selvadurai has decided to move on in the third anniversary of the company. “I’ve done all I can do and I’m moving on,” said the Co-Founder of FourSquare in a blog post on his personal blog.

Naveen would still serve as the company’s board and still be actively involved in the company’s developments. Besides these, he has also hinted that he would look forward to work on something new this spring. Here’s what he said about what’s to be expected from him next:

“The spring is time for things that are new, and I realize that I have a desire to do something new as well. I’m not sure about my exact next steps, but I’ll probably get back to what I love most – being an entrepreneur, learning and building new things.”

Now that FourSquare has gotten some changes for us, we can expect some changes to the apps and something new this year.