21hippos blog

Counting down the days!

Nope, not to Christmas; but to the beta launch of 21hippos!  It’s been a long time in the making but the beta version is nearly ready to launch, so get ready to change the way you share information with your friends and to find some great new places and things!

We’ve all had those moments when we struggle to plan a big night out in the city, to put together an overseas vacation, or even something simple like trying to decide what movie to see.  So where do you land up turning to try get help with these things?  To your friends and to the Internet..  Well now you’ll be able to go to one place to find whatever you need (or have a forum to ask your friends if you can’t find it)!

Through 21hippos you’ll be able to share short reviews of your favorite bars, restaurants, tourist attractions, hotels, movies, books, etc, with your friends, and see what they’re sharing as well.  By tagging each review you’ll also be able to find new things and places by both your and your friends tags.  You can even add your own private tags that only you’ll be able to see and search for.

Chances are that if you’re reading this, you have a Facebook account.  So you have this amazing network of who you know and who you’re friends with.. but now what?   It’s time to take social networking to the next level and to use your network to help you get opinions from those people you trust, rather than from random ramblers who write reviews on all other sites.

Here’s a taste of some of the cool features that we’ve been working on lately:

• Tight Twitter / Facebook integration.  Not only can you post your reviews to Twitter and Facebook, but (if you choose) we can pull in tweets from your Twitter stream and, using some fancy algorithms,  automatically add them as review on 21hippos.
• Socialize with your friends. You’re checking out a new restaurant that you found on 21hippos and want to send it to your friend?  No problem - you can send any place or thing that you’re looking at with friends, along with a personal message.  You can also send a shout-out to all your friends on 21hippos to ask about where to go, what to see, or anything else on your mind, and see what your friends come back with.
• And keep your own lists. With your personal To Do list, you can add anything you’re looking at to your list, and can then browse your favorite restaurants, movies, etc, by those things that you really want to check out.  You can also store your own private notes to remind yourself of who you went to a place with, what the manager’s name was, or some other personal info.
• Have fun with maps.  You can add a whole bunch of places that you’re looking at to your map to help you decide where to go, or plan a big night out!  You can also get driving/walking/transit directions to or from any places you’re looking at.
• Integration to tons of other websites.  Through partnerships with Seamlessweb, Amazon, Netflix and Fandango you can order food from a restaurant you’re looking at, purchase a book or album that you’re checking out, add a DVD to your Netflix queue or buy tickets for a new movie.

OK that should be enough to get you excited for now, but there are tons more awesome features that you’ll soon be able to check out on 21hippos shortly..

See you soon!