The Pitch: Localmind helps you quickly get information about what's happening right now at places you're interested in. Leveraging check-in services like Foursquare, Facebook, Gowalla, etc. you can ask people at those locations questions about what's happening there in real-time. Those questions are sent via SMS, and an iPhone app is in development.<p>We believe that the untapped power of location-based services lies not in what's happening with your friends right now, but instead lies in what's happening at the places you care about in right now. More insight into our vision here: http://bit.ly/gv5vpN<p>http://www.localmind.com (use invite code: HACKERNEWS - gets you in immediately for next 24 hours)<p>We're interested in people's feedback on the overall concept, but especially on the UI and experience.
"Choose an existing account to sign in with (click one below):"<p>I don't like dicking my accounts! :-P<p>EDIT: epic fail, but honestly it looks like dick: <a href="http://imgur.com/c44Hf" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/c44Hf</a>
I really don't like it when applications require me to sign in through a third party account. As an option it is good, but not as the only option. Especially with a new service that I am unsure how they will use that access. I wasn't able to try it since I was unwilling to hand over the keys to my facebook account to an untrusted service.
I like it...great concept if you can pull it off.<p>I came up with a similar/not-so-similar concept that I'm still working on (<a href="http://www.xuland.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.xuland.com</a>) only I'm not leveraging Foursquare, Facebook or other location-based apps. I'm depending on folks actually logging into the application and posting/replying.<p>Of course, my app is also done in Flash (jury is still out on whether that proves to be a good idea or not) but I discovered well over a year ago that it would be great if I could find out what was happening at this very moment in a given location so kudos to you and your team for recognizing a need. Good luck!
I like it and I see why a service like this would be helpful. But, is there enough incentive for your users to answer the texts?<p>For example, if I'm at a bar in NYC drinking with my friends and I get a text (from a stranger) asking how much a pitcher of Coors is, I'm likely to answer because it's a quick text back. But, if someone asks me to list what's on tap, I'm likely to ignore the message because it's a lot of work and the payoff seems very little.<p>Also, I would have been quicker to signup if I didn't have to use a third party.<p>Overall, I think it looks awesome.
I've been privileged to try out early releases of Localmind, and it looks very exciting. A friend of mine was at dinner last Friday and answered an unsolicited Localmind query on the spot--and he wasn't entirely sure where it was coming from!<p>I think users will enjoy feeding data into the system as long as it's fun and they get a sense of accomplishment from helping out their fellow man. Robust, rapid answers will definitely be the hinge on which the app relies.
I don't like that you show accounts for Twitter and Google and then just say they aren't available...I understand the reasoning behind it but just show the images and don't provide links.<p>EDIT: On a 13" MBP the "Have an invite code" link is below the fold and was difficult to find at first.
You should let people know that you're going to SMS them before you do. Having skimmed the blurb and just signing up, I was surprised when my phone started buzzing. Thankfully I had my google voice number tied to my foursquare vs. my actual number (which doesn't have a text plan anymore.)
I'd like to be able to control exactly who sees my questions and answers. If I'm at a place that I think is awesome, it might be because everyone else in town <i>isn't</i> there in which case I'll have incentive to misinform any/all strangers. For what it's worth I recently released something like Localmind for surfers, so I look at it from that perspective. When the waves are good, we only want to tell a few specific individuals with whom we'd like to share the experience.
I had created similar app to find out where people are hanging out or checked-in: <a href="http://misotrendy.com" rel="nofollow">http://misotrendy.com</a> , it allows you to get a snap shot of checked-in people at a place anywhere - its a Web app and html5 mobile web app - @krisrak
One very powerful use case for this would be "Is the snow affecting the train to x?" - because the public transportation's websites are always so delayed but the answer is finite/simple enough that it'll probably be answered.