foursquare in Romania

I didn't think much of foursquare until I picked it up while in New York and found out it can actually be useful to some extent - it just might be that perfect exponent of the location-based trend we all keep hearing about. I guess the tips are the best part about it (and the special offers from businesses, of course, if you're among the lucky ones who have actually managed to get them).

However, the truly interesting part is to see it being picked up in Romania. Over the past few years, I've seen Twitter grow to about 20.000 members (at least that's what they're saying) and Facebook to about 500.000 (idem) - so I'm looking forward to see how this smartphone-only service will play out.

Only a handful of people use it right now, so Bucharest is still in that annoying "not-another-venue-I-have-to-recreate-in-order-to-check-in-at" phase - but it may just have potential. I'm quite curious to see which local business will be the first to set up those special offers...

By the way, it's disappointing to already see cheaters (sad little people who just hit "Check in" on just about every venue in their area without actually being there).

So what's the web's next big thing?

(pic via)

How To Outsource Romania's Maps

At the beginning of this summer, I wrote a rant about Romania not being properly indexed on Google Maps. A friend noticed it on Facebook, and asked me if I could help start something about this using the Causes application.

A few months flew by, and the cause "Google! Put Romania On Your Maps!" has 10,208 members as of the time of this post. The cause has sparked others (including a petition on Twitter, to which Google responded), and has been mentioned in the Romanian press and even on the Google Lat Long Blog.

And from that very post on Google's blog comes the company's sheer brilliance: they have an application called Google Map Maker, which allows users to create and/or edit user-generated maps of any given area, based on their own local knowledge. And they just opened it up for Romania.

Now, I didn't exactly know how this works (and most importantly how this crowd-sourced content actually makes it to Google Maps itself), and it just so happened that Jen, a Maps Community Organizer at Google, left some helpful comments right on this blog (you can never, ever say that Google isn't on top of its game when it comes to communication).

Here's how the whole thing goes:

1. Visit Google Map Maker and search for, let's say, Bucharest
2. Add or edit (more about this and a walkthrough in their Help section). As you create or moderate, others will pitch in with feedback (which you'll be notified about via e-mail).
   
3. How does your stuff get to Google Maps (and its API)? There are processes called data transfers, which are done at a certain period of time - the last one was on May 24th - more here - Romania should be on the list next time.

Now comes the interesting part - seeing how many of those >10,000 people actually respond to this call-to-action. It's utterly needless to say that if everyone adds or edits at least 10 items, the first data transfer should cover quite a lot... So map away! [pic via]

Androids Are Heroes Too

Ever since trashing my iPhone, I've had the privilege of getting my hands on a shiny HTC Hero. This has also been the first time I really got to know Android. All I can say is that I'm fascinated.

Is this one a worthy oh-so-sought-for iPhone killer? I think it is. And it's not just about the fact that the device is state-of-the-art (it has everything one needs minus a flash for the camera), it's also about what it more or less stands for: open-source. There's a theory going around nowadays about how the iPhone has already seen its peak, that companies who try to control their customers will end up in the bin, and how the concept of open-source (such as the Android OS) is getting stronger by the day because it gives its users freedom (and, erm, Google Voice).

All I can say is that, after tinkering with Android, I think that Google's evil plan to take over the mobile telecommunications world (as well) just might work.

"Not another social network?!"

Online social networks have been literally booming over the past couple of years, thriving on the content that they don't even have to create - why should they, when hundreds of millions (if not billions) of users, myself included, are doing it for them?

That's all fine and dandy, but it seems to me that something went wrong along the way, and the bubble's beginning to burst. There are so many out there now, that many people are now hunting down the best app which can do the best job at updating all of them at once. To put it simply, it's just too much to handle, at least for the average (non-geek) user.

Which more or less conveniently brings me to my next point: because of this clutter, many good up-and-coming social networks don't stand a chance.

Take Dopplr, for example. It has a very simple, yet particularly useful purpose: as Jimmy Wales put it, "You put in your travel schedule and link to your friends. It allows you to see where everyone is. I love it." I'm personally an avid user of Dopplr, and I'm making serious efforts to get my friends to join, simply because it's easy to use, very handy and arguably the best there is on its niche. Unfortunately, their usual response is "Not another social network, dude, I can hardly handle the ones I'm on as it is!"

But then again, typical social networking users don't check out TechMeme or follow The Crunchies. Hell, I don't even think they've ever googled their way into finding the best solution. They're not seeing the good stuff. They just go with it on a first-come, first-serve basis.

So I'm wondering whether the problem is, in fact, this never-ending stream of crappy alternatives to the good networks, this clutter... Or is the discouraging and brutal truth that they don't really care? If so, take that for a target consumer. [pic via]