March 10, 2012 - 11:36 AMT
Foursquare provides members with merchants’ hours of operations

In the name of educated exploration, check-in and place-discovery application Foursquare is now providing members with merchants’ hours of operations, Venture Beat reports.

The incremental update, introduced Friday, March 9, means that people can turn to Foursquare for a detailed breakdown of a venue’s business hours. The operational information, should businesses provide it, may even include happy hour times, kitchen hours, and any other special periods.

The subtle enhancement, in conjunction with newly added menu items and updates to the company’s Explore tool, helps bring the service closer to its goal of becoming a one-stop shop for location-based content. It could also prevent people from swapping over to competitor and newly public company Yelp for the same info.

However, since businesses have to add their hours manually for each of their venues, it could be awhile before this feature becomes a standard part of the Foursquare experience.