Try This App: Findery Takes You Beyond the Tourist Trap with a Map of Memories
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Findery founder Caterina Fake has an embarrassing confession to make: She’s never seen an episode of Full House.
“I live three doors down from Alamo Square [the San Francisco area where the show was set], and I wasn’t even really particularly aware of it,” she told Yahoo Tech. “But then people were coming up to me all the time and saying, ‘Where’s the Full House house?’ ”
Fake — a co-founder of Flickr (now a Yahoo property; she is no longer with the company), an early Kickstarter investor, and a longtime Etsy board member — has created a product to help spread interesting location-based facts just like the fact that Alamo Square was the Full House location. Findery, which she launched in spring for iOS and last week for Android, aims to collect and organize people’s knowledge of certain locales. Fake hopes the service will become a map peppered with helpful user-generated memories and tips.
“Now that I have Findery, I’m the consummate local expert,” she said. “I’m like, ‘You think the Full House stuff is interesting, but did you know there’s a crazy artist who works entirely in glitter living in the house next to the Painted Ladies?’ I’ve kind of become that person.”
Though there’s no “right” way to use Findery, Fake says the app is made for curious people, travelers, or snoopers who are interested in the history, secrets, and little-known facts about their current environs.
The company is still learning how to push its community past a group of insider Silicon Valley and New York techies — a problem that apps like Secret or Path still struggle with. She hopes offering the app on Android, which has broader reach, will help.
“If you want to have more local notes in Laos or Africa, where notes are thinner than they are in the U.S., Android is the place to be,” she said.
So far, Fake cites expansion to little-known places like rural Maryland, East Texas, and Dubai, where a Canadian expat is leaving “wonderful, fascinating,” notes about the area.
In practice, Findery isn’t quite the treasure map you might want, but it’s far from boring. A recent weekend in Boston gave me an opportunity to test how well it would acquaint me with new surroundings. After allowing it to access my location on my phone, I zoomed in on the map to a two-mile vicinity of my friend’s apartment. A note from a user named ministerofculture informed me that Edgar Allan Poe was born down the street, going on to excerpt a note his mother wrote to him on the back of a watercolor: “For my little son Edgar, who should ever love Boston, the place of his birth, and where his mother found her best, and most sympathetic friends.” Hey, you learn something new every day.
Another, by TheDailyRobot, tipped me off to a gang of felines nearby in a tip titled “Catwatch 001.”
My friend confirmed and led me to a window where I could view the fuzzy specimens. This was very good information indeed.
But along with all those gems were your typical recommendations for bars and restaurants — stuff you might see on Yelp or Foursquare. This information, no matter how helpful, quickly gave me app fatigue. One can only glance over so many tips for where to get the best latte before it all just turns into frothy nonsense.
Not to mention that, amid the fascinating historical nuggets and personal notes, brands have begun to jump on the Findery bandwagon as well. While snooping around in my neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights, I noticed a note from The Corcoran Group that praised the nearby promenade as “the best place to sit with a cup of coffee with the one you love.” This was information I could have done without from a New York real estate company.
Nevertheless, it’s an interesting tool, and one I’ll be opening whenever I find myself curious and on a new block.
Here’s a quick run-through of how it works:
1. After you create a log-in, you’ll be given a brief tour of the app.
2. It’s split into five different navigation tools: Discover, Activity, Create, Map, and Me.
3. Discover is your homepage.
This is where you’ll see a feed of new notes from anyone you choose to follow on the network, as well as “Findery Favorites” (frequent users who produce good content), and “Notable Notemaps” (particularly cool themed maps of areas). As you scroll down on the page, you’ll also see notes nearby and active members in your area.
4. When you find a map that’s interesting to you, you can, at any time, follow the person who created it by tapping his marker photo on the map.
That’ll bring you to his profile, where you can see his interests and hobbies, in addition to recent notes he’s written.
As you follow more people, you’ll be able to keep up with everyone’s latest travels via the Activity feed.
It’s divided into recent posts, notes from people you’re following, and any note that mentions you (sort of like a Twitter feed).
5. To leave your own note on a map, tap Create. The app will mark your current location (as long as you’ve enabled it to see where you are) and open up a blank box.
Write whatever you’d like — something that happened to you on that street corner, a description of the man who always sells ice cream down the block, the year the building you live in was constructed. When you’re all done, you can add Tags at the bottom of the writing space (for instance, #icecream). You can also add your note to an existing Notemap you’ve created. There’s also an option to attach a photo from your library or take one by tapping the camera button on the upper-left corner of the screen.
When you’re all done, tap Post. Your note will be public for anyone browsing the app to see.
6. Anytime you want to explore a new location, simply tap Map at the bottom of the screen, and your home country will show up.
Tap the magnifying glass at the upper-right corner of the screen to search for a specific spot. You can type in an actual address, a state, or just a neighborhood. For instance, Brooklyn Heights.
When the search is complete, your results page will contain both a map and a list of some featured tips. If you want to navigate via map only, just double-tap to have it fill your screen.
7. Finally, the Me section is where you can update your bio, load a profile picture, see whom you’re following, and write private notes to other people or yourself.
Those are the basics. Now go ahead, traveler, and put yourself on the map.
Follow Alyssa Bereznak on Twitter or email her here.
