Gather was launched on July, 20 2012 by Mikeal Rogers and Max Ogden to help bring people together. Gather for Android, iPhone, and web is used to share your upcoming plans with your Facebook and Twitter friends as well as those in your Gather network. The clean and simple interface makes creating, broadcasting, and managing your meetups quick and easy while giving you a single place to stay up to date with nearby friends' plans.
Today, Mikeal announced that with finances running out and a small user base they have decided it is time to phase out Gather. Unfortunately this answers Techcrunch's statement "Now let’s see about that traction". The good news for users is that there is enough money to keep the apps available and the service running until the end of the year!
Gather truly did an amazing job of creating a simple and useful product. It will be sad to see them go, but perhaps it will get enough traction this year to justify them getting more venture capital. They have praised Atlas Venture, there seed investor, for their continued support, which is great to hear. Give the app a try if you have not before and follow them on Twitter for updates. Have you tried Gather?
Cavootle is a new service to vote on bands, movies, fashion, entertainment, books, restaurants, politicians, and more. What makes it innovative is that unlike a regular poll you can view the answers for a specific geographic region. You can find the favorite beer for people living near Boston, Los Angeles, or wherever by changing the answer location. From there you can expand the area and even take into consideration everyone no matter where they are. Creating a new Cavootle and adding options to existing polls is easy.
The service is new and has room for improvement, but I can already see this being very powerful when you are traveling or doing research. I would like to see an improvement on the location feature so that we know exactly what area "far" covers and the increments between. Perhaps giving a distance radius would do the trick. The other issue that will probably be solved over time is a distinction between a general question and one that involves a location. For example, this question asks what is the "Best Steakhouse in New York City". Using the location feature for that question really is telling you the location of the voter and works differently than a question such as "What is the Best Steakhouse" and setting the location for NYC. It is an interesting dynamic when dealing with location.
Cavootle was founded by Patrick Kling and Brian Kane. You can signup today and follow them on Twitter and Facebook. Adding an API and the ability to embed Cavootles with definable default locations would drive rapid expansion. I can envision them being embedded on travel and business websites to offer readers great insights. I am certainly going to follow their progress.
This augmented reality Android app is designed to help you learn and discover new places whether you are on vacation or around your home area. Soragora is live for testing in the San Francisco, Palo Alto, and Berkeley areas. If you would like to try it out and do not live in those areas just let them know, and they will work on launching in your area. Soragora was founded by Darrel Sumi and Neil Sharma. They describe Soragora as a service to:
Provide you with a fast, easy, and intuitive way to discover and engage with new places around you. Soragora Alpha is designed to help you discover and learn about buildings, shops, restaurants, and landmarks in your immediate surroundings.
If you live in a covered area please download Soragora and share your thoughts in the comments below. You can follow their progress on Twitter and Facebook.
MoBubble looks to be an interesting and really useful iPhone app that is currently in beta test. From reading their blog I believe users can expect a slick app that will connect people with businesses in your local area.
Consumers would be able to see who is offering what in their area and businesses can find what people are looking for. You really could build a business based on what people need, but are not getting. The app should also be simple for consumers to search and find services they require. A reputation system will be part of it along with many other features, including social integration.
I hope an Android app will follow and that there will be a web interface. You can follow their progress on Twitter and Facebook. Founded by Stephen Boyd, John Eisberg, and David Knell. Like many new technology companies it's success depends on wide (or regional) adoption, heavy promotion, and time.
Igobubble is a mobile app for the iPhone that integrates location-aware social networking with continuously evolving digital content by creating "living" bubbles that carry thoughts, images, sounds, videos and other fun content created by users. These bubbles evolve in real time and can be modified, moved and cloned. In fact the bubbles you create have a life of their own. Partially built on Darwinian principles of evolution, the bubbles can grow, shrink, change, divide and spread like viruses. They can even "jump" from mobile to mobile. Any user can grab and release bubbles or modify another user's bubbles. Popular bubbles thrive. Unpopular bubbles die.The bubbles are only available in the real world and only on smart mobile devices.
Gowalla releases version 3 that includes a full user interface overhaul. Upon logging in you will have a passport view that will give you a snapshot of your profile; including your stamp, pin, and photo counts. In addition there are icons for Check in, Activity, Spots, Trips, Friends, and Settings. Notifications will splash across the bottom of the page. They also added push notifications for users with Android 2.2 and above so that you will receive notifications when a friend checks in or makes a comment about your own comment or check in. The changes are on every page and have really enhanced my experience using it. There are so many changes that you will have to download it to see everything.
They have done a wonderful job and have always been, in my opinion, the best check in application and website. They have great attention to detail and intuitive designs that are much better than SCVNGR or Foursquare.
