HELP ME NAME THIS! Website/app idea - need feedback
 

Ok, so was recently coding a new system for businesses to post events in one spot and have it propagate to all the important places it needs to go - Facebook, their website, Eventbrite, Zvents, local papers, etc etc

AND a thought occurred to me. IF I were looking for events going on in a city, I would turn to the local event-centric paper (Austin Chronicle here) or similar website... but more and more these days businesses are eschewing that route and simply creating an EVENT on Facebook. Well, that is all well and good for anyone who gets an INVITE for the event or who is a FAN of their page... but what about the random people who just want to see what is going on?

SOOOO I was thinking of creating a simple event site that lists all the Facebook events in a specific area and also maps them on a Google map.


I could also add events/music listings from other sources but it seems to me that Facebook is becoming the sole source for quite a bit of these things.

Also, starting out this would be limited to bars.. which should be fine for now.

EDIT: Now I need a name for this! Any ideas?

So any feedback? Useful? Oh and to be clear, all I'm hoping is that the idea is somewhat useful to people as a tool... I'm not expecting it to be anything huge.

You should make that into an app

oh yeah, I forgot to say that.

It will start as a website with a smartphone friendly version that looks and acts just like an app. BUT if it takes off, I'd certainly be willing to make a proper app.

No feedback? useful? useless? waste of my time?

excellent plan IMO. :thumb:

We need that bad here at the Lake of the Ozarks.
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What are you typically coding with? You mention it'll web-based to start. Are you using jQuery Mobile, Sencha, or anything like that? Do you work with PHP web services at all? Maybe we could work together on something sometime.

sandboxsimulations.com > your event thingy.




Seriously, sounds like a good idea. The hardest part will be getting the word out on it to create a critical mass of users.

I like it. Maybe have a way for people rate/review the different bars, as well.

Oh, and I can't tell you how many times I've been in a city I do not know that well trying to find some good nightlife... it can be a ****ing chore sometimes. I would definitely find some use for a site like this.

Doesn't yelp do something similar?

jquery mobile and php/mysql/JSON on the back end.

yelp provides a map of bars but not events going on. You'd have to click each bar to get to their yelp page, then HOPE they have a website link for you to follow and maybe find an event there.. or open a new window and search for the place on Facebook to maybe get the info by digging around.

Exactly how I did GiveMobiley.

You have any experience with Phonegap?

yep, the only good thing is that the site still functions without users since it doesn't rely on user generated content but instead pulls the content directly from the Facebook API and I'll probably add some other sources for info but the main reason for this is access to Facebook events, which are becoming more and more the standard.

seen it, but haven't played around with it.

get me a list of Facebook ids for every bar/venue in the area and I'd be happy to add that area to the BETA! :D

I'm actually working on a way to get the bar/venue listings directly from yelp then use that data to search Facebook by location and then calculate the Levenshtein distance on the result strings to match the yelp bar id with a facebook id and then add the relevant data to my database. In theory, this will let me launch a new area with just a few minutes of work. We shall see... for now, I'm concentrating on Austin.

I agree
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Are you just looking for a web host?

I saw a scorpion yesterday.
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I use an app called "things to do in tampa".

Probably a little smaller than a large crawdad.

Pretty good sized though. Out in back of the house on a pile of metal foor the roof
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The problem with apps like that are the holes in their data model. If a bar in Tampa posts a Facebook event but doesn't send the info anywhere else... you'd never know about it. What I am hoping to do is provide a list/map of events that is more complete, gathering Facebook data, and a few other sources should do just that.

I actually live in st. Petersburg. The worlds best beaches mintues from my house? The gulf a bock and a 1/2 from my house. it doesn't suck.:rolleyes:

ok, so I am about 80% done with the main engine for this...

It pulls all Facebook events in a given area (right now only a small district in Austin) and shows the last 7 Facebook posts for the possible venues (just in case they didn't post it as an event) and it pulls all the music listings from the local weekly paper that used to be the "go to" spot for this type of info and still is for bars that haven't made it into the 21st century.

I should have a ROUGH beta up in the next day or two if you guys would be willing to critique it.

Any input would be good...

BAN FOR BUMP!!!

I like the idea and my company creates apps/Facebook integration (we have almost 5 million followers who I think would like something like this). If you're interested or need any help with this feel free to IM.

Hard to believe noone else has done this.. but seems like a great idea. Send any betas over and I'll take a look.

There are some sites that are a little similar but nothing that actually WORKS.

Can you make it with a "Cassel Sucks" skin? Just thinking out loud.

ok, almost have some rough looking output/map ready to show...

but now I think I need to have a name for this thing... any suggestions?

Call it Goanon.

Then when some asks "What's Goanon?" they'll understand what the product is.

ok, that's actually quite good! Clever. BUT it appears that domain is taken. I tried alternate spellings as well.. no go except for GOENON.COM

Here are some suggestions I have heard so far...

GoingOnmap.com/WhatsGoingOnmap.com/WGOmap.com
KnowTheScoremap.com/KTSmap.com
WhatsMappenning.com

and my personal favorite so far...

WhatsTheHapsMaps.com/WhatsTheHapsMap.com/WTHMap.com/WTHMaps.com

Any feedback

Whatsthehapsmaps doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

What about:

happendar.com

It's available.. but not sure it send the right message... I guess it sort of is an event calendar.. but it's much more event mapping.. but I've added it to my list of names! Thanks!

I always worry about a name like this when WhatsHappenning.com is taken... too easy for someone to assume the correct spelling and miss the site

I'm biased, but mine's the best.

;)

What about just.. WhatsTheMaps.com?

ok, I'm gonna start a poll and see if any of these is a clear leader

I was trying to make a play off of radar, but if I have to explain it I guess that it doesn't work.

I like that. Easy to remember, nice and short. It doesn't necessarily make grammatical sense, but that's not really important these days. My favorite so far.

There is another thread with suggestions.. Whatsthemaps lost out to EventZombie.com but no final decision has been made.

I figure I can always change the name up until it is ready to launch.