On a mobile phone, the more you can automate search, the more likely people are to use it. Or at least that is the principle which seems to be guiding Geodelic Systems, a startup which is creating a “search-less search” experience for mobile phones. Today in a press release, it revealed that it raised $3.5 million in an earlier round possibly in 2008 from Clearstone Ventures (where it was incubated) and Shasta Ventures. The company was founded by Rahul Sonnad, who previously founded thePlatform, a Web video publishing service he sold to Comcast in 2006.
Geodelic is creating a location-aware search engine for restaurants, movies, stores, flights, hotels, and local attractions which recommends results based on their distance from you. A “location carousel” brings up nearby results on a map by category and it learns from you behavior which places, stores, and brands you like the best, and will target you accordingly. The app is designed to be as passive as possible, eliminating or minimizing the amount of typing required. However, it doesn’t go as far as some augmented reality tagging apps such as Layar or Sekai Camera, which add a data layer on top of the view through a phone’s camera.
T-Mobile’s next-generation Android phone, the myTouch 3G, will feature an app created by Geodelic called Sherpa. And, judging by all the iPhone screenshots on its site (two of which I’ve pasted below), an iPhone app is also in the works.
folks need to develop for mobile and stop all this we must develop for twitter crap. lots of money to be had in geolocation mobile services. ashame so many developers are developing for twitter where there is little returns in financial gains. maybe not so sad because while they are wasting man hours developing for twitter the rest of us arent
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Looks great I have to say but what happens when Google implements these features into Google Maps Mobile? Will it makes these guys redundant?
Geodelic is a great idea, but I agree with Murat. There’s not many barriers to entry here. Google wouldn’t have to do much to implement this in their current suite of applications.
In fact Google is going almost exactly there on Maps – look at http://google-l...whats-here.html
Why are you standing in my backyard, Rahul? We didn’t invite you to our barbeque.
Sick him, Fang!
Congrats Rahul…well-deserved and I can’t wait to see the Sherpa app.
Get out of our pants, fella.
This is such a huge area that is about to be flooded with new players. Location based advertising and recommendations present one of the biggest opportunities for companies today. The technology is there, the need is there, we are all ready for this to be perfected.
I have seen an early version of the Sherpa app and the UX is pretty slick. I think people will enjoy playing around with this one.
This is great and obviously the future of the internet/mobile device – To really make these apps effective though there are going to have to be reliable filters for bars, restaurants etc. You’re going to have to be able to really profile those who are using the application to properly service them with recommendations.
So, people running websites like http://www.imma...infatuation.com could be the beneficiaries once these companies learn that they need to find a voice for these apps to go along with the technology.
Can’t wait to see where this goes.
Rahul and his team are very strong. They’re also good people, which gives them a huge leg up. Expect to see something very interesting come out of Geodelic.
Couldn’t agree more that THIS is what should be getting funding. I had the pleasure of seeing what Rahul was up to a few months back and was impressed, and I’m happy to see this news.
Yes, there is a lot of money to be made in Location based advertising and recommendations. I see many start-ups getting funded in this field.
The “What if Google did this?” comments are pretty tired. Google hasn’t had significant innovation in Maps in a long time, and though they move fast for a big company, they move slow compared to a startup.
uh.. google latitude.
and Streeview on Google Maps Mobile
Great idea, Rahul.
Who’d ya steal it from?
Great app.
Like Google local business on Map .