Recent developments with the mobile app Foursquare are making it look more and more like the next big thing experts predicted it might become.

Whereas the playing field for Facebook and Twitter is the Internet, Foursquare takes place online via the real world of brick-and-mortar businesses. For those unfamiliar, Foursquare is one of several location-based social networking apps including Gowalla and Loopt.

Foursquare allows users to set up a profile then, using geolocation technology, check in every time they visit a restaurant, bar, shop or just about any public destination that has been uploaded into the database. It provides incentive by awarding users badges for checking in, and it allows users to leave tips about places and communicate with each other through the interface.

It comes with Facebook and Twitter integration so that users can broadcast to their networks where they are, a development that has given rise to the joke site Please Rob Me.

Two developments this week have broken Foursquare out of its early adopter insularity and made it demanding of business owners’ attention.

1. Stats for Business Owners

In the coming weeks, Foursquare will roll out a huge gift to business owners: The ability to monitor things like who has checked in to their establishment, when they checked in, who the top customers are, where they are on other networks (Facebook, Twitter) the male-female ratio of customers and what times of day certain customers tend to arrive.

Before you start thinking that anytime you walk into a bar, the bartender’s going to know everything about you, remember that Foursquare only provides data that you provide it, so guard your privacy accordingly.

Foursquare’s goal is to enable business owners to better connect with their customer base, providing special offers to their top customers (”mayors” in 4sq parlance) and luring back customers who haven’t dropped by in a while.

Here’s what the business-owner interface will look like:

“We’re trying to give businesses more retention with current customers and the ability to add new customers with specials,” Foursquare business development director Tristan Walker told the New York Times Bits blog.

2. Fourwhere

Using Foursquare’s API, the techies at Sysomos bring us Fourwhere, essentially a mashup of Foursquare and Google Maps. Launched yesterday, the site searches around your location to show you what Foursquare users are saying about businesses in the area.

If you’re thinking Yelp, you’re thinking right. Soon customer comments on Foursquare will be just as important for business owners to monitor as customer reviews on Yelp, Insiderpages, Citysearch and all those other sites that pop up on Google Maps proper.

But take heart, business owners. Foursquare is more geared toward social networking and usage by real people and is not designed with anonymity in mind. And if someone does rip your joint on Foursquare, you can more easily reach out to them and address their concerns.

Or so it seems.

What do you think? Are these developments positive for business owners? What about users? Are you comfortable making your information known wherever you go? Let us know in the comments.