Twitter who? Instagram cozies up to places pal Foursquare

Days after giving the finger to Twitter, Instagram has puckered up to give life-long places partner Foursquare a big, wet kiss.

Foursquare, the social network centered around places, announced Wednesday that the Instagram iOS application now includes a special Foursquare button that directs people over to its places app for additional information.

The new, checkmark-styled button shows up atop all place pages inside the Instagram experience (as pictured below). Click on a venue from the Instagram stream, tap the Foursquare button on the venue page, and voilà! You’ve been transported to the venue’s Foursquare page, where you can save the place to one of your to-do lists and read up on tips.

The idea, at least on Foursquare’s end, is to encourage people to save their Instagram finds for later.

“It’s something we’ve chatted with Instagram about for a while,” a Foursquare representative told me. “The integration between the two makes a ton of sense, because when you see an interesting place on Instagram, you can tap right over to Foursquare and save it to your to-do list, and then Foursquare can remind you about it when you’re nearby.”

The logic behind Instagram’s decision to include the Foursquare button, and give it such a prominent position inside its popular app, is a little unclear. The companies have always had a close relationship (Foursquare powers Instagram’s location database), but this additional promotion seems unnecessarily chummy. Also, consider that Facebook, Instagram’s new owner, was once considered a challenger to Foursquare.

Whatever the reason, Instagram just gave Foursquare the gift that keeps on giving: exposure.

Photo credit: Mike Baird/Flickr