Tag: Social Discovery »

MapHook, a social discovery app that allows users to find, organize, and share interesting activities (hooks) by location, has upgraded in a big way.

The update includes the new “Liquid Social Discovery” user interface, better search filtering, integration with Foursquare, Twitter, Yahoo, and MapHook’s “CultureHook” project, and a “HookStream” dashboard featuring streaming Hooks for faster viewing of information. Users can now like Hooks and share them via social networks and email. Also, there is now an offline mode where users can create Hooks when they are not near WiFi to save on data.

You can find Maphook on the App Store for free.

A mobile social discovery app, WhosHere, updated yesterday, adding free video chat to the universal iOS build. The app allows users connect with an new emphasis on keeping random hook-ups safe(ish). The developers say “the biggest problem in meeting people online today [is] knowing that the person you are speaking to is exactly who they say they are.”

Exactly how they propose to solve this problem and provide a layer of security is unclear, but I think the idea is that providing personal details like phone numbers, addresses and information about where you are located at any given moment is best done in a video chat rather than by email or SMS, so people can speak "face-to-face." Some users complain there are a disproportionate number of men to women using WhosHere, so perhaps this move is intended to help remedy the imbalance ?

The service, clearly, is primarily for dating and casual connections, and gets tepid fan reviews, but if you're already using WhosHere, video chat should be a welcome addition. Certainly it unleashes some, um, creative communication potential beyond simple safety concerns. If you’ve used this service or test out the new feature let us know what you think in the comments.

There's a lot to take in online isn't there? Every day more and more information, whether it be useful new Wikipedia entries or funny and entertaining videos, emerges on the internet. Things can get a little overwhelming. As is fortunately the way, there's an app to help tame it all. At least on the video side of things.

Shufflr promises that videos will find the user. It's not quite as stalkerish as that, fortunately, but it does offer a way for users to quickly see what videos their friends are sharing on Twitter. They can also discover other people with similar tastes - whether that be complex political narratives or cute cats doing silly things. Plus there's the all important personalized video recommendations and the ability to check out trending videos quickly.

For the video fan, Shufflr looks to be an ideal solution to missing out on all the latest and greatest without taking too long to find such things.

It's out now and it's a free download.