Launched: Social Bookmark Service for Locations

PALO ALTO, California – 15 March 2006 – Rrove launches its online social bookmark service today. With Rrove, a member can easily save addresses into his or her account. By doing so, the user can revisit these locations with just a few clicks.  More than that, Rrove members can opt to share their special places with one another, enabling users to discover interesting locations such as a restaurant or free wifi zone.

Inspired by other social bookmark services such as Del.icio.us and Flickr, Rrove aims to use the “Wisdom of Crowds” theory to allow its members to receive recommendations for local spots. The idea is that each Rrove member will save addresses that they like.  As this happens, Rrove collects these addresses and the number of users who have them in their accounts.  Visitors can then query this information, and Rrove will return results based on the number of “votes” they have. For example, a coffee shop that’s been saved by 24 people will rank higher than a café that in the accounts of two users.

To simply the search and discovery of local spots, Rrove integrates Google Maps and tagging into its service. Thus, a user can drill down and request for specific types of places such as “Indian restaurant” or “hotspot San Francisco, CA.” More than that, Rrove returns results on a Google Map, allowing a visual interface that makes it easier to get driving directions.

As Rrove heads to critical mass by growing its user base and information set, the service provides a set of community features to enable discovery.  This functionality allows a member to use an “Expert Panel” of users to find local places.  By subscribing to the location-lists of people that they know, a Rrove member can easily receive recommendations from them. The rationale is very simple – their friends and family like these places and the member should give them a try.

Rrove is part of a new set of services behind Web 2.0.  Web 2.0 is the next generation of Internet sites built on exciting and new functionality.  It has three distinct characteristics: material generated by a community of users, the integration of popular web services (e.g. Google Maps, Flickr Photos, etc.), and the use of tags to describe, sort, and search content.