AskTheLocals

[rosemark0206]

Just released a new app.... called AskTheLocals. Anyways... thought I would share... its completely free and has no ads... i.e. i just built it for fun...

https://market.android.com/details?id=GQuestion.src&feature=search_result

It allows you to ask questions to people at a given place/location. For instance

1) Before you drive to see the band ask people at the concert if the band is any good.
2) Lost your dog in the park... ask people in the park if they have seen your dog.
3) Want pics of the big game. Ask the people at the game to send them to you.
4) Ask the people on your favorite lake if the fish are biting.
5) etc...

I figure the best way to get information about an area is from the people that are there... i.e. the locals....

Enjoy,
Ross

 

[rosemark0206]

Just released a new version of AskTheLocals... you should check it out...

https://market.android.com/details?id=GQuestion.src&feature=search_result

 

[kellynina]

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[mikedt]

Couldn't find anything local with it, and no local questions either. Not many using it yet?

 

[Sombre]

As far as I know it was only released 2 days ago. I'm in early because I like to help, rather than be helped + getting in early means you get to have a cool user name

Cheers,
Sombre.

 

[alostpacket]

A+ for a cool idea

 

[ambientdroid]

Very cool idea, here's hoping it takes off.

 

[rosemark0206]

As the person that wrote AskTheLocals I would like to just say thanks for the comments... as for people using it... i just released it on sunday afternoon... so not a ton yet... maybe 100 or so... hopefully more will join to make this app a cool little way to find out whats happening somewhere/someplace.

For those of you who are using it... can you recommend anything that would make it better... chatting, user profile, other... I would really appreciate it...

Thanks again,
Ross

 

[wownelly]

.....

 

[sonofaresiii]

if you already have this feature, i'm apparently overlooking, and if you don't have it it may be way too difficult, but...

this seems a little pointless to me without geotagging. Someone asks "any good bars?" but I have no idea if they're in new york or los angeles or idaho or louisiana. If I ask a question it'd be nice if the app would tag where I am so people looking through it would know. (or have an option to enter an address, in case i'm asking a question about somewhere I'm traveling to)
On the other side, it'd be nice if the app could recognize where I am and only bring up questions for me to answer that are asked specifically about my location.

Unless the person specifically mentions location in their question, I can't really answer it.

 

[rosemark0206]

Thanks sonofaresii... very great idea...

I'm in the process as we speak of writing it so users can give a little more info about themselves... i.e. pic and location. In terms of geotagging... the idea was that people would only ask questions to places there interested in... so for instance.. your example... if someone asks

'are there any good bars'

If you receive this question then the person is interested in bars around you... I.e. when a person asks a question he/she chooses the area their interested in (i.e. downtown NYC)... then the question is only sent to the people in downtown NYC...

Another example... say I lost my pet in Central park... I would then ask a question 'have you seen my dog...here's a pic' and indicate that the question should only be answered by people in central park...

Does that make sense?

Cheers,
Ross

 

[sonofaresiii]

Thanks sonofaresii... very great idea...

I'm in the process as we speak of writing it so users can give a little more info about themselves... i.e. pic and location. In terms of geotagging... the idea was that people would only ask questions to places there interested in... so for instance.. your example... if someone asks

'are there any good bars'

If you receive this question then the person is interested in bars around you... I.e. when a person asks a question he/she chooses the area their interested in (i.e. downtown NYC)... then the question is only sent to the people in downtown NYC...

Another example... say I lost my pet in Central park... I would then ask a question 'have you seen my dog...here's a pic' and indicate that the question should only be answered by people in central park...

Does that make sense?

Cheers,
Ross

Yeah, do you already have a feature that lets people specify the location? I may just be overlooking it... but right now I see a person asking about Thai places in NYC, which I can answer... and someone else asking who's online in Florida, which is irrelevant to me. Maybe you could have it filter by location so questions about Florida don't come up in my feed? If this app gets popular, it's going to be a PITA to dig through questions from all over the country just to find one in my area. A little like searching for an apartment on craigslist by looking in "America." Not too useful.

But I really love the idea and I hope the app does well... it's fun!

 

[rosemark0206]

Thanks sonofaresii... i hope it gets more users too as I do think it would be quite useful... plus its kind of cool to know that people are using an app you wrote..

Yeah... it does have a feature where people specify the location when asking a question... unfortunately as you noticed some people right when i first released it specified a large area (i.e. the us).... fortunately it seems like people are starting to catch on... and are now specifying only the area they are interested in....

I'll look into that filtering capability... and see what I can come up with...

Thanks again for all the helpful info...

Cheers,
Ross

 

[rosemark0206]

A new version of AskTheLocals has just been released.. Download it at:

https://market.android.com/details?id=GQuestion.src&feature=search_result

It now provides the ability to
1) View the responses to all PUBLIC questions.
2) Shows the geographic area associated with each question.

Also, were happy to announce that within the last 4 days 200 new users have signed up.

Sign up today... its completely free and has no ads.

Feedback is import to us... please provide comments and/or rate us.

Cheers.
AskTheLocals

 

[jaybo1973]

Hi guys

I downloaded ask the locals yesterday. It is in its early days but one day, I think it is an that everyone should have on their phone. Although it doesn't have a big community yet, I asked a question about a farm park and within a hour I had got am answer. I like to go different places with the kids at the weekend. Being able to ask for local advice is great.

 

[jaybo1973]

Hi.

Nice to see you posting on here. Not sure if it is because of feedback I gave via app? Anyway, I used it to ask about a farm park which is about a hours drive away. Believe it or not I had a reply within the hour. Not bad to say it still has a small user base. I can't praise it enough. Would like to see it automatically zoom to location in future releases?

Is there a way to reply to the person who answered your question? I.e, keep a thread open or something? YOu may want a few more details

 

[rosemark0206]

Thanks jaybo1973.... I'm so glad to hear you like the app... and thanks again for all the nice comments... we just released last week... and our small user community of 1 (me) has now grown to around ~200... Through comments/posts from people like you as well as an advertising campaign... we hope to continue this growth...

Your ideas... excellent... I love the idea about replying to an answer someone gave you... i will make sure this is in there on the next release... Automatically zooming to your location... do you mean zoom the map to your current location... or something else?

Thanks again,
Cheers,
AskTheLocals

 

[jaybo1973]

Hi

No, I mean to the location you are interested in. For example I was interested in Liverpool. I typed it in then had to manually zoom to it. Although it does zoom to the correct place, I think it Would be good if it jumped to the correct place like Google maps does, you could then tweak the zoom level manually. Or at least have this as an option.

 

[rosemark0206]

Hi jaybo1973,
That is a great idea... I'll try to get that implemented as well... Hopefully google maps was nice enough to provide some way of doing this... btw... i really appreciate all the feedback... its helped me tremendously...

Take care,
AskTheLocals

 

[jaybo1973]

Glad to be of help. Great app

 

[wownelly]

......

 

[reinbeau]

Very intriguing idea, I'm going to try it

 

[amlothi]

I think the main screen should be a map (or, at minimum, something similar to the places app). You use the map to set or choose a location, or it can autodetect where you are.

Then, once a location is set you have options to ask or answer questions in that area.

It would also be nice if there was a way to set a radius perhaps?

Then, we need some sync settings. How often to check for answers or new questions near your location (or choose a default location instead of detecting your actual location each time). Something like that.

Also, a list to see all the questions I have asked or answered. Like a history.

 

[jaybo1973]

The radius is the amount of map you can see on screen. Think this works quite well. YOu can zoom into a local park or the whole world and everything inbetween. Asking the question and then setting the area works well.

 

[lifeonmtv]

I'm using it in Sydney I like the idea too