Last June we got a sneak peek at nrme, a location-based message service for the iPhone. The service behaves like a regional Twitter, but is geared towards sharing information rather than chatting - it’s sort of like a neighborhood bulletin board in the cloud. Instead of using a follow system, nrme makes all messages public to users within a 9 block radius (users can still private message each other if they’d like).
Today, the app has finally gone live in the App Store (despite rumors to the contrary, the approval process was only a matter of a week or two, not months). After a quick test run I have a few gripes about the interface, which is still a work in progress, but my biggest concern is the absence of content that has been posted by anyone “near me”. This isn’t unexpected because the app just launched, but I worry that the service will never be able to get a meaningful amount of information. To help combat this “chicken and the egg” problem associated with a new app and its lack of users, nrme is focusing its marketing efforts in San Francisco, even though the app is available to the entire country.
I really want this service (or another one like it) to take off. The prospect of being able to let people know when a bar is full or a store has just gotten a shipment of a hot item like the iPhone 3G is very appealing - and the altruistic nature of it would build a sense of community. The fact of the matter is that there are dozens of location-based applications on the iPhone (some of which are very similar to nrme), but most of them have gone largely unnoticed and lack content. At this point, it is beginning to look like we might have to wait for an established player like Twitter or Facebook to implement geo-awareness before we’ll see a location-based app that’s actually useful.
Other geo-aware services with some similar features include GeoGraffiti and to some extent, Twinkle.
Jason,
It seems that right now there are a lot of different ideas and players on the field. At some point players will drop out or merge to leverage their individual strengths. For example, Twitter buying Summize. How the integration of the two services creates a new stronger entitiy remains to be seen.
Lots of great ideas out there. Hope to be reading about them on Tech Crunch very soon.
Best,
David
There are TOO many ideas and players on the field, which will only result in fragmented user bases–unless, they do the sensible thing and plug into Fire Eagle. (Otherwise, it’s akin to trying to create separate ‘Internets’)
Looks interesting, doubt I’ll use it though.
There are a lot of ways to use location based messaging beyond updates on immediate matters, location specific micro-blogging, and the like. There’s also value in persistent in place based media that enriches a location and provides a virtual information landscape with threaded history, and not just of disposable messages.
Jesus, who came up with this name?
nrme??
I get it — “near me” but let’s not pretend the name is awful.
And yes, this is going to have a huge chicken and egg problem….
But if it works, that’d be AWESOME !
Great App if you could change your location.
Make this change and this app will fly. Without this feature it’s boring.
No one is “near-me”!!
Patience is the key. We expect nrme to get exponentially more useful as more people join. It’s a Free download so we expect to quickly gain traction.
Keep checking back, join the conversation and be patient.
-Andrew
nrme
http://blog.graffit.io/
There’s been an app out for a while now that does something similar, and the next release will bring some even nicer features.
it seems like this would be interesting at stadiums, festivals, other large gatherings of people…
“I worry that the service will never be able to get a meaningful amount of information.”
Well, a TC write-up helps =D
This will never work by itself… BUT once somebody big acquires them (or their idea), it’ll DEFINITELY blow up.
If Twitter added it - HUGE.
If it was built into the iPhone as a default option - HUGE
etc…
This could help with crimes/Amber alerts
As a suggestion Andrew (from nrme) since I am assuming you aren’t just expecting things to magically happen, don’t just focus marketing on a particular area (SF), but also focus on a particular niche or two also.
Isn’t this about the same thing as Loopt?
It’s exactly the same thing.
Cheap and good things on sale. People within 9 block radius are welcome.
Brightkite’s iPhone app should be done soon and its integration with Twitter makes it my location service of choice.
advertisers should gobble thiss up
all you venture backed internet fucks. you couldn’t survive more than ten minutes in another industry.
here we have, several comments up, a representative from the company in the spotlight suggesting this product might be worth it if you have -patience-.
that’s just great.
@Hellohekki: They don’t have to survive in another industry, they create their own! Many start-up folks would survive even longer in other industries because they know how to bootstrap.
Cheers
Phil
I noticed the rudeness of the comment, too. Understandable to let words slip out badly after a long day, but if that’s the real attitude there the company’s toast.
There is a related twitter add-on that can do something similar for people who are just on twitter. As long as someone defines an event or a group all tweets from the group/event going to the twitter user will be sent out to the entire group … http://www.mysidekick2.com
this app needs a “killer app”
This app seems just like the Twinkle App… except that the Twinkle App has a much better interface and is integrated with twitter so that there is already a built in community of messages.
iBricked my phone when installing thru iTunes. I guess 2.0.2 didn’t do shit. This is getting old…