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Ask HN: Review my weekend project - MobilePly

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Re: Ask HN: Review my weekend project - MobilePly

#21

Well, this is kind of insulting to YC and it's longest running posterchild, Loopt - http://www.loopt.com/ Can't believe no one here mentioned it.

I think what sets this apart from sites like Loopt, Gowalla and Foursquare is that those sites are oriented towards the social networking aspect of geolocation. Those sites are community based where as this seems more like a nice little utility app for giving someone directions. The real time tracking and simplicity is what makes this unique I think. Not sure where these guys are going to take this but I would urge t…

That just tells me that you've missed my point about missing Loopt's early days on the list. If you've been an active member of the HN community (judging by how long you've been on HN - probably a throwaway account for downvoting?) or know about Loopt's early days, they did exactly what this app is trying to solve, which was to solve the problem of "Where you at?".

Yes, I agree Loopt and the sort are more social/community oriented these days. But, back in the day before Foursquare, Gowalla and even the iPhone (and Android) were alive, Loopt did this first and did it rather gosh darn well.

That aside, the app is pretty neat. It'd be nice to have an embeddable version in the future so let's say you arrive at a restaurant or whatever, and your location could be broadcasted or narrowcasted to the rest of the group. I could see this working with maybe a facebook group or whatever.

Re: Ask HN: Review my weekend project - MobilePly

#22
Others have already mentioned competition but now you have a bigger player, Facebook, on the playing field.

FB has tried to make their application as simple as possible and my understanding (I'm not in the US so I can't use it) is that it basically uses your GPS to tell you the location you're in (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). This sounds like a big part of your app.

How will you respond/differentiate yourself as a response?

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