Posts Tagged ‘api’

Posted on October 11, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

TriOut 2 Dev Journal: You can see your friends check-ins on Foursquare, Gowalla & Facebook too.

Guest Post by Lawrence Ingraham @lawpower, Founder/lead developer at TriOut. This is the ninth in a series of posts detailing the history, design and features of TriOut v2 for iPhone.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. We’ve been absolutely slammed trying to get the app complete in time for the NC State Fair. (If you’re in North Carolina, plan on coming by the State Fair on Thursday to take part in the TriOut scavenger hunt and say hi while you’re there!)

We submitted the new app to Apple last Monday and hope to see it approved later this week. I thought I’d review some of the main things we’re focusing on this week so you know what to expect. We’ve done a lot of thinking about user habits for Location Based Services since launching TriOut in November of last year. Features are great, badges and coupons are great, but what people really care about are their friends.

Of all the users we’ve asked, the biggest reasons to use any service are:
1. Tell my friends where I am
2. See what my friends are up to.

TriOut 2 makes your friends the priority. The first thing you see when you launch the app is where your friends have been recently. Not just your TriOut friends, but your friends on Foursquare, Gowalla or Facebook too. If you’re already a Gowalla, Foursquare or Facebook user, signing up with TriOut is just a few clicks.

We show you your friends last 3 hours of activity. With most services (not Gowalla just yet), we can also filter it down to just your friends who are local to you. Since I live in North Carolina, I’m less interested in Jeff eating at St Johns in Sunnyvale, CA than I am with Branson having a cappuccino at 3cups down the street.

Friends are the core of TriOut 2. It doesn’t matter what service you use, or what service they use, your friends are what’s important.

We’re really excited about TriOut 2 and looking forward to seeing everyone outside of North Carolina using TriOut. TriOut version 2 has been submitted to the app store and we’re waiting for Apple to approve it in the next few days.

Posted on September 21, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

5 Ways Developers and Partners are using the new TriOut API

Before check.in was release TriOut founder Lawrence Ingraham and I new at some point TriOut would need an API. What we didn’t know is how soon it would be created after the initial launch in February 2010. Then we saw the first beta release of check.in announced and I contacted my friends at Brightkite to see if they were interested in including TriOut for the second beta version and the response was yes. Some may have wondered why include a hyper-local location-based platform in a national check-in web app where the goal is to help solve check-in fatigue but the answer is simple. Why not? One being North Carolina users have check-in fatigue too and it was just the push TriOut needed to go ahead and develop an API (http://api.trioutnc.com). After the go ahead yes, Lawrence developed the TriOut API and announced it along with the release of the TriOut Andriod/iPhone HTML5 web check-in application (http://mobile.trioutnc.com) in June.

Since the launch of the API some developers/partners/friends have made a few web and mobile applications using the TriOut API. Here are a few.

1. Google Chrome TriOut Check-in Extension [download link]

Beta on http://github.com/hyperlink/triout
Develiped by Xiaoxin @hyperlink

2. FT TriOut NC – WordPress Plugin

Developed by Glenn Ansley of Full Throttled Development

3. SPARKcon iPhone & Android native apps

iPhone app made by Sal Conigliaro of Acme, Inc

Android app made by Media Box Studios

4. Custom TriOut Widgets http://trioutnc.com/u/widgets.php

Developed by TriOut

5. Check.In made by Brightkite

Speaking of the TriOut API, we’re using it to develop the next version of our iPhone app along with an upgrade to our web app. Yes, we’re working on an Andriod app built off of the API too but if you’re an Android developer and want to get a head start let us know. A big thanks to everyone creating apps using the TriOut API.

Posted on July 31, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

This Week in Location: 33 Location-based must read articles you may have missed

What a week for location-based applications/services. From being called the next big thing in social marketing to being said no one is using location-based apps, this week one of the most exciting week for location-based applications in a while. Here’s a list of 30 location-based articles you may have missed from last week.

1. Awesome Infographic: Mobile Advertising & The Rise Of Mobile Coupons
2. Like a Robot Struck by Lightning: Gowalla to Launch Write API, Possibly With Pictures
3. 6 Reasons why you should check-in with location-based services such as TriOut, Foursquare, Brightkite, Whrrl, Gowalla, Scvngr, PlacePop, Yelp and more!
4. Google Tags – Do They Help? An Anectdotal Review
5. Whats Foursquare All About? Simple Guide From A Power User
6. Why MyTown Should Add Virtual To Their Product Check In Arsenal
7. Did I Just Earn an Inception Badge or was it Just a Dream?
8. MyTown adds product check-ins
9. Four Reasons Brands Must Check in to Foursquare. Now
10. Boston’s Skyhook Will Map Tweets, Check-ins at San Francisco Marathon – Xconomy
11. inside wereward metrics
12. MapHook Hooks Social Media with Sharing of Location-Based Content and Interests
13. Now, there’s a reason to keep checking in to foursquare
14. Forrester Recommends Caution with LBS
15. RANT: What LBSeseses are Missing
16. IHG Becomes First Global Hotel Franchise Company To Reward Loyalty Points For Geolocation Check-Ins
17. LoKast comes to Android, brings ‘check-it-out’ to check-ins
18. Miso Targets Shopping Networks for Badges and Special Discounts
19. PlacePop Looks To Give Any Business Its Own Rewards Program, Raises $1.4M
20. How Mobile Text Alerts and Location Affect Consumer Retail Behavior
21. Checking in with the Places API
22. Forrester: Why Most Marketers Should Forgo Foursquare
23. HBO Sinks Its Teeth Into GetGlue To Reward Fans For Checking-In To Hit Shows
24. SCVNGR Announces Rewards for Check-Ins
25. Rally, I Can Quit You: My Failed Social Networking Experiment
26. Reflections on MITX’s Location-Based Services Panel
27. The Ever-Present Debate Goes On: Is Location A Business Or Feature?
28. In April, Apple Ditched Google And Skyhook In Favor Of Its Own Location Databases
29. First-Ever Location-Based Fortune Telling Application Launched on iTunes Store
30. Brightkite Gets Down To Badges
31. Yelp CEO: “There is real tension” between Google Places and Yelp
32. 10 Ways Geolocation is Changing the World #10Ways
33. Podcast #14: Rob Reed, founder of @MomentFeed on location-based marketing/measuring, foursquare, facebook, and google’s location’s plans

For those who keep doubting the geo/location-based space, just read a few of the articles above and you can see why those who “get it” are excited about the geo/location-based industry…. keep doubting.

Did you read any interesting location-based articles last week or have a comment about any of the above articles? Let me know in the comments.

Posted on November 18, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Is it time for Twitter to kill Trending Topics?

Since Twitter has “jumped the shark” from earlier this year, trending topics seem to have less value than ever. Random tends such as #blackthoughts and #whitethoughts which are trending one and two now are more about jokes, free will expression and spam, than sharing or posting valuable content. Also besides the spammers, some “Trending Topic seekers” are tweeting things that really should never be said online, ever. Recently Brian Solis of FutureWorks wrote, Do Twitter’s Trending Topics Signify What’s Important to You?. My answer in the comments was no. Also I stated that Twitter could use services like topsy.com, bit.ly or Tweetmeme to better filter trending topics based on links or tweets that I have tweeted based off of their api. Also with the new geo api Twitter could show me Trending Topics not only by what I have previously tweeted but by location and popular tweet content near by.

Personally at the current state of Trending Topics and with the growth of new Twitter users I think Twitter should stop displaying Trending Topics until they can make it more valuable. Also I’ve heard from many individuals say they don’t even look at or use Trending Topics anymore or care about Trending Topics for that matter.

Twitter though is acknowledging the Trending Topics problem on a recent blog post called: Get to the Point: Twitter Trends. Post excerpt:
As Twitter grows and the number of tweets each day continues to astound us, we’ve noticed an increasing amount of clutter in the public timeline, especially with trending topics. Trends began as a useful way to find out what’s going on but has grown less interesting due to the noisiness of the conversation.

So, today we’re starting to experiment with improvements to trends that will help you find more relevant tweets. Specifically, we’re working to show higher quality results for trend queries by returning tweets that are more useful.

Good luck with improving Trending Topics but unlike the list and retweet roll-out, I think Twitter should hide Trending Topics everywhere on the site until it’s fixed.

Your Thoughts or Take the Poll below?

Posted on June 19, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

Weekly Pitch: BabelWith.me a group translation chat room web app.

The Pitch
BabelWith.me is a simple chat tool that allows you to hold conversations in up to 45 languages. Invite your friends through Twitter, Facebook and email to join you in a conversation without language barriers. Or you can simply share your unique chat room URL anywhere you would like.

As users from around the world join your chat room, they’re given the option to choose a nickname and their language. Choosing any language other than English will immediately translate the entire chat room into the language they choose, including the chat log and all static copy.

BabelWith.me implements Google Translate’s API and runs on Google App Engine’s Python platform. This offers BabelWith.me great reliability and flexibility as we continue to add usefulness to the application and expand the opportunity for real-time, multi-language communication.

LifeChurch.tv is the non-profit organization behind BabelWith.me.

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My first impressions:
I’m very impressed with the design and the usability of BabelWith.me, it’s simple and it works.
Will I use it?
Maybe, but I don’t have to many international conversations but a free group chat room is nice to have around.
What features I like?
The speed of the site, and social networking integration to promote your chat room.
What features would I like to see:
Although I haven’t spent to much time with BabelWith.me I would like to see a login profile linked to a custom permanent chat room name.

You can find BabelWith.me on twitter as @BabelWithMe

If you would like for me to cover your product or site please email: pitches at pitches at socialwayne dot com . Disclaimer:, I have no investment or relationship with the creators of this site. Thank you.