One of the big problems with starting a new service that relies on user submitted data is getting people to actually use it — nobody is going to routinely boot up your app if they don’t have an incentive to do so. One way to tackle this problem is by working the service into a game, which is a technique that seems to be working quite well for Foursquare, a service that makes it easy to find your friends. GraffitiGeo is a new Y Combinator funded startup launching tonight that’s looking to combine similar gameplay elements to take on a different space: restaurant reviews.
At its core GraffitiGeo allows users to leave brief reviews of restaurants, or for those too lazy to do that, to simply leave a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ — it’s like a highly condensed version of Yelp, or a “Digg for the world”. These reviews and votes can be cast from the site’s iPhone app or from the service’s homepage. The homepage also features a stream of the latest comments to come in from other users, as well as a profile for each restaurant in the system that includes all of its votes and comments. There’s also a nifty feature that lets you view a heatmap of your current region, so you can quickly figure out the hot spots in town.
The gameplay in GraffitiGeo is a bit more complex than that found in Foursquare, which gives you points for checking in but doesn’t really let you do anything with them. With GraffitiGeo, you earn points for every action you take, be it voting on a restaurant or leaving a brief comment. Once you’ve reached a certain point threshold, you can use those points to start a ‘mob’, which you can invite your friends to join. Mobs allow friends to pool their points, which can then be used to acquire territory, which corresponds to actual city blocks. Whenever someone votes on one of the restaurants on the block, the mob gets some street cred too. It’s definitely going to be confusing at first, but it also brings a team element to gameplay — something that Foursquare lacks. You can read more about the mob game here.
GraffitiGeo is also working on a second related iPhone app that combines the site’s data with augmented reality — in effect, it turns your iPhone into a viewfinder for looking up restarurant info (see the video below for a demo). Just hold the iPhone as you would a camera and point it in the direction of the restaurant in question, and an overlay featuring GraffitiGeo comments will hover over it. It’s very cool (we’ve seen a number of other AR apps that are on the way), though we’ll have to wait a while longer to try it out.
GraffitiGeo has some good ideas (especially with the AR app), but it still has its work cut out for it. For one, Yelp is going to prove a very tough competitor — it already has a vast amount of data, and while it may be annoying having to sift through long reviews at times, I don’t think people find it annoying enough to stop using that site. The startup also has some work to do on the iPhone app and the service’s homepage, both of which are functional but could still use some polish.
All this Augmented Reality stuff is really silly without the use of some kind of a head mounted display.
What the heck do you gain by taking out your iPhone and moving it around like that?! It’s extremely tasking and doesn’t help you much with selecting what you want. It’s a gimmick that you get satisfaction out of for maybe 5 times you try it. After that it becomes a pain in the ass.
Give me Yelp’s app anytime over this.
> All this Augmented Reality stuff is really silly without
> the use of some kind of a head mounted display.
Finally, someone with common sense. I don’t see how apps like this will ever gain any remarkable usefulness or following.
Yelp manipulates reviews, pay people to write reviews, and it unethical.
Right on with this. You can’t trust Yelp’s reviews because they bump all the bad reviews to the bottom if the company pays them.
Nice design, terrible name
That augmented reality stuff is sweet! Also, I love the idea of digg for the real world. Congrats on the launch!
I love how when a gimmicky app lacks a proper business model, they re-dub it a ‘Game’ to get in the gaming market share. Seriously?
Interesting idea, but Im curious how the mob feature is going to work. Foursquare has been around a while and it just recently started picking up steam. I assume it is going to take them quite some time before the game aspect is actually entertaining…
“Foursquare has been around a while” ???? March 13th, 2009. That’s 5 months ago. You have an odd concept of time.
Agree that the name is pretty terrible. Not memorable at all and cumbersome.
The coolest idea for augmented reality I have seen.
Time to buy a 3GS. Dammit.
totally awesome. yelp sucks.
can’t wait until i walk into a pole while using the augmented reality.
Does this AR trend really works? I mean, sure, it’s cool, but how is it in real life?
Is the GPS geolocalization good enough to accurately place the tags when the user is near the POI (say, less than 200meters) ?
yea – I think that’s the real question. Works fine in a canned demo – but how scaleable is it? And is it pulling the POI from a DB or from Google Maps API? My other question is whether the camera is actually providing any location intelligence in this app (is that even possible with iPhone?). I’m guessing its just the GPS interfacing with Accelerometer, determining location and angle of device?
Join my mob using code 3.333
I can’t stop tagging up the Bay.
This looks like fun. If I had an iPhone I’d try it.
It’s a cool idea and sounds fun. They need a way to gather up lot’s of users though. Since I like to eat and have an iPhone and if it’s available in my city i will use it. I like the idea of making it a game. I hope there’s ways to avoid spam on the reviews.
Join the Universe Denters -> 4.36
Hrmmm… I don’t exactly like the ripoff of our name http://www.geograffiti.com I hope you don’t add a feature called a MarkVoice.
The AR is too cool. History buffs should enable self guided tours using this tech.
Such a fun application to use and play, join my mob!
No, join mine! 3.333
No, join mine! 4.36
This is a total rip-off!!!!!! GeoGraffiti!?!? This is lame… they can’t even come up with a name of their own… pssshhh… two thumbs down.
hmmm, i wonder if its anything like the GeoGraffiti.com website
didn’t anyone do their homework on either TechCrunch and see what a rip off it is of GeoGraffiti?
It’s quite apparent that these are very unoriginal and half-witted founders! It’s sad to see that GeoGraffiti’s name is being ripped off.
Who said it was intentional?
novelty item that completely misses the point of what the general public actually needs.
step 1. re-brand the app
step 2. understand your potential user base
step 3. understand your potential user base
so, is diminished reality a text version?
This is a sweet application!!
It’s a neat idea, but like many startups, the UI is a bit half-baked.
The add location system is fun to use, but not nearly accurate enough for augmented reality, especially since they aren’t using satellite maps to help guide the user.
I don’t want a lot of thumbs ups or thumbs down from a bunch of kids merely trying to stat pad for territory. I want to know the reviewer by reading the reviews. Even FourSquare misses this. Great, I can make a one liner suggestion but where is the meat of the reviews? oh, they link to Yelp. So if I was doing a pub crawl or wasn’t in contact with my friends via cell, for me, foursquare is … looking for the right term…. useless. This ap doubly so. Sticking with Yelp.
Yelp blows.
Neat. Earlier this week we launched an experimental geo-graffiti service: http://blockchalk.com. It’s completely anonymous and uses HTML5 geolocation on the iPhone, so there’s nothing to install. Very early, very alpha, looking for feedback.
Not bad! How long do the message stay? until the next rainfall
what’s HTML5 geolocation??
Thanks!
Messages technically stay forever, although I suppose the equivalent of “the next rainfall” is when new message push older ones down and eventually off the page.
HTML5 includes a mechanism for the browser to acquire coordinates from a local GPS receiver. As of iPhone OS 3.0, Safari on the iPhone supports this interface. This enables BlockChalk to run entirely within the browser with no native code and no download or install. Sounds like the Pre supports this as well (we’re investigating now) and others are sure to follow.
Go GraffitiGeo!
Knew you guys were onto something cool….
I’ve downloaded it, maybe I’m slow, but I don’t really understand how to use it. It’s a fairly clean and basic interface… but the UI does not easily lead me to intuitively do anything
Augmented Reality is currently the next ‘big thing’ across the Tech World, but as a ‘buzzword’ it sounds pretty lame.
I mean look at Third Generation Mobiles. That didn’t sound really snappy until they named it 3G Mobiles.
Universal Serial Bus? Huh!
USB! Ah Yes!
So to take Augmented Reality into the mainstream now is the time to give it a quick rebranding.
AR Overlays?
ARO?
AeRO?
What do you guys think?
Since when does Apple allow to manipulate the camera image and sell AR stuff through the app store ? Wasn’t there a big discussion about this very topic recently ?
Just be ethical. That’s all you need to do to beat yelp.
lol Sunny. So much anger. I bet you have a story
just installed it…agreed with all prev commenters – terrible name. but it’s more useful interface than foursquare – and foursquare crashes every time i add a place, which is most places i go to in LA.
I am king of the universe denters clan. Mobs and AG = FTW. Hacker house forever!
What about advertising and AR? We are testing several ideas at our company to see if its worth developing it more. check out blog.easyconcepts.com
really is a bad name, hope you guys reconsider