3 ms·

We select each landmark "by hand", and can spend time on the quality of the data while still keeping the data gathering/updating process effective. Quite differ

We select each landmark "by hand", and can spend time on the quality of the data while still keeping the data gathering/updating process effective. Quite different compared to how traditional landmark databases, with focus on quantity, are built. Another one of our strong points is data in areas where there are no digital maps available (but still lots of people with cellphones) -- landmark data is so much easier to gather than traditional map data. Sources of the data depend on the country: 1. For example in the US or Europe, we can work mainly by combining information from a number of online sources with only some checkups from people actually "on the scene". 2. For a lot of developing countries (Nigeria is one of our strong areas for differentiation from other datasources), we will have some local guy physically go around the city and gather the raw data that we then process for accuracy and quality. I'll dig up some examples where the usual digital maps fail and we succeed. I am the head tech guy of the company, and am not so accustomed to preaching about the power of landmarks. So thanks for the opportunity to work on my arguments! Re the app: Try it! It's much faster with the built-in landmarks compared to writing it yourself, and will change your texting behavior. Once you get used to it, texting without a location feels just so... last season. :)

auganov 15y ago
95% of the time if I put a location in my message it's most likely a location that I and the receiver are familiar with, so such a standardized name is not too desirable. But of course it's just me. I can definitely see, a lot of couples using that all the time (beware cheating girlfriends!). Does it work backwards? So that if somebody uses it too and sends me a message using that can I look up the place on the map? That would be a big plus. But yea, now that I thought of it. In very big cities where people move around a lot in a fairly constrained area that is very nice. If you can add more features and market that better I can see some people using it. Not quiet revolutionary, but nice. Of course provided that this landmark database is really really, really good.
- asmosoinio 15y ago
  <warning, long reply which hopefully also answers all your questions> You can also easily add you own points, which is what you probably end up using a lot. "I'm Home now", "Still at the Office". It's a one time tap/enter name to add these, and these are the ones you probably end up using a lot. (Not really related, but: Also usually the app is pretty good at picking up the correct landmark even without GPS (from the inexact cellid location), so you can just forget about it, send your text and automatically also share your location.) Regarding the cheating girlfriends, we let the user select any point she wants. This is by design, this is not a tracking application but a communication tool. For example sometimes you know your mother will not be familiar with the closest automatically selected landmark, and can easily select another one. It's not about exact location (going all psychological: there is not exact location, ever), it's about human understandable location. Currently it doesn't work backwards. On a concept level, we want to think maps suck and landmarks rule. On a technical level, this is something we may well implement. (Sidenote: I guess the view with the landmark points can also be considered a "Map", and that we definitely could want to show on the receiving end.) Thanks for your positive words! This is version 1.0 in terms of marketing texts and everything, so the journey for this app is just beginning.

auganov 15y ago

95% of the time if I put a location in my message it's most likely a location that I and the receiver are familiar with, so such a standardized name is not too desirable. But of course it's just me. I can definitely see, a lot of couples using that all the time (beware cheating girlfriends!). Does it work backwards? So that if somebody uses it too and sends me a message using that can I look up the place on the map? That would be a big plus. But yea, now that I thought of it. In very big cities where people move around a lot in a fairly constrained area that is very nice. If you can add more features and market that better I can see some people using it. Not quiet revolutionary, but nice. Of course provided that this landmark database is really really, really good.

asmosoinio 15y ago
<warning, long reply which hopefully also answers all your questions> You can also easily add you own points, which is what you probably end up using a lot. "I'm Home now", "Still at the Office". It's a one time tap/enter name to add these, and these are the ones you probably end up using a lot. (Not really related, but: Also usually the app is pretty good at picking up the correct landmark even without GPS (from the inexact cellid location), so you can just forget about it, send your text and automatically also share your location.) Regarding the cheating girlfriends, we let the user select any point she wants. This is by design, this is not a tracking application but a communication tool. For example sometimes you know your mother will not be familiar with the closest automatically selected landmark, and can easily select another one. It's not about exact location (going all psychological: there is not exact location, ever), it's about human understandable location. Currently it doesn't work backwards. On a concept level, we want to think maps suck and landmarks rule. On a technical level, this is something we may well implement. (Sidenote: I guess the view with the landmark points can also be considered a "Map", and that we definitely could want to show on the receiving end.) Thanks for your positive words! This is version 1.0 in terms of marketing texts and everything, so the journey for this app is just beginning.