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Ask HN: Review my weekend project - MobilePly

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Ask HN: Review my weekend project - MobilePly

#1

Post by Jordanian »

http://mobileply.com

Mobileply is remote GPS that runs on most GPS enabled phones with a browser (Android, iPhone, some BBs). The app starts tracking you and gives you an id to share with friends, they can enter the id and see where you are on a map, it's as simple as that.

My roommate and I had this idea when we both moved to a new city for new jobs. We never knew where we were or where other people were, and simply saying what intersection or roads we/they were on was far too annoying and time consuming to deal with.

Over the year we've found many useful applications for this, but we're trying to figure out what to do next. So I'm asking the HN community for some feedback and advice. What should we do with our weekend project?

Does anyone else find it useful? Any suggestions for possible uses?

Re: Ask HN: Review my weekend project - MobilePly

#2

Post by hcarmichel »

I just tried this on my nexus one and it works pretty well. Surprised at how accurate the GPS is. The mobile version is very nice too. I like how it is just a map with controls overlayed, very clean. I think this could be very useful for meeting up with friends. Eliminates the "where are you" conversation. I am going to try this out with a friend later when I am actually moving.

Re: Ask HN: Review my weekend project - MobilePly

#4

Post by mrduncan »

Please don't use sequential IDs for this.

I went to the "Track Me" link and got a tracking id of 54. I was then able to look through plenty of other peoples locations for IDs less than 54. I'd suggest switching to something that's much harder to guess.

With that harshness out of the way (sorry :)), it does seem like a pretty cool little app. I could see myself using it for a long road-trip or something so that others could track my progress.

Re: Ask HN: Review my weekend project - MobilePly

#5

Post by Jordanian »

djb_hackernews wrote: post #3

Not to be a total downer but you have a lot of competition in this space. If you plan on building this out so it is widely adoptable you'll need to differentiate yourselves.

Thanks for the feedback!

We've seen a few competitors out there that are really big. Glympse (http://glympse.com/) I think is the biggest one and we tested out their app and weren't impressed with their mobile to mobile experience. If one person is on a computer the other on their phone their app is amazing but if you don't have flash all they do is show a picture of a blurry map to show the other person's location.

Do you know of other competitors out there?

Re: Ask HN: Review my weekend project - MobilePly

#7

Post by Jordanian »

mrduncan wrote: post #4

Please don't use sequential IDs for this. I went to the "Track Me" link and got a tracking id of 54. I was then able to look through plenty of other peoples locations for IDs less than 54. I'd suggest switching to something that's much harder to guess. With that harshness out of the way (sorry :)), it does seem like a pretty cool little app. I could see myself using it for a long road-trip or something so that others…

Good point, we'll switch this soon. The current code base is more for proof of concept purposes. We were also concerned with having easy ids to send others. We'll get on this!

Re: Ask HN: Review my weekend project - MobilePly

#9

Post by mrduncan »

Jordanian wrote: post #7
mrduncan wrote: post #4

Please don't use sequential IDs for this. I went to the "Track Me" link and got a tracking id of 54. I was then able to look through plenty of other peoples locations for IDs less than 54. I'd suggest switching to something that's much harder to guess. With that harshness out of the way (sorry :)), it does seem like a pretty cool little app. I could see myself using it for a long road-trip or something so that others…

Good point, we'll switch this soon. The current code base is more for proof of concept purposes. We were also concerned with having easy ids to send others. We'll get on this!

I'd suggest something like the way that http://bit.ly handles their urls. Auto-generate a short string or let users (maybe after a registration or something) enter their own.

It'd be nice to be able to say "Keep track of my progress at http://mobileply.com/matt or something similar. Heck, I could see myself even paying a couple bucks for a nice url like that.

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