Foursquare, the location-based mobile game startup that pioneered the checkin, has introduced version 3.0.

“Our theme internally has always been that every checkin counts,” said co-founder and CEO Dennis Crowley.

He went on saing: “We help build tools that make it easier to explore the world. We have a chance here to invent the future … and play in the sandbox that we created.“

The Foursquare user will immediately begin to see the value of the checkin in the new Explore tab, mashable.com reported. The Explore tab now serves as the meat of the application. Users can query for recommendations or dive into food, coffee, nightlife, shops and arts and entertainment recommendations served up by Foursquare and ranked by what’s most interesting to the user.

There will soon be seven special types available to merchants: Check-in Specials, Friend Specials, Flash Specials (e.g. the first 10 people to show up after 5 p.m. get a free drink), Swarm Specials, Newbie Specials, Mayor Specials and Loyalty Specials.

Recommendations introduce much improved discovery mechanisms; the new points system works on the encouragement piece.

Version 3.0 supports the new special types and also finally allows application users to browse all nearby specials in the Places tab.