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A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

droid

Untappd: a social network/app beer lovers can truly love

November 7, 2013

It’s pretty safe to say I’m a beer guy.

I brew my own to the best of my ability, I like to try new beers and I enjoy chatting about the beverage with people. I also like to drink them slowly and savor the taste and over the past few years have really developed my own person taste.

During that time, however, I’d sometimes forget beers I tried and enjoyed. Or, worse yet, beers I tried and disliked. There’s nothing worse than disliking a beer and then trying it some time later, just to realize you had been through that song-and-dance before.

Insert Untappd.

If you don’t already know, Untappd is an application for phones and on the web where you can keep track and rate beers you try. It’s also social media as you can have friends, see their beers, follow breweries and earn badges.

Pretty sweet, huh?

I’ve been a member since late 2011, but I kind of ignored it for a while. Then, as I saw others utilizing the app through posts on Twitter and such, I dug into it more. I then wondered what the heck I hadn’t been using it for. (Feel free to check out my profile and add me, if you want!)

It’s an extremely user-friendly app with a nice interface. There are plenty of brews to discover and find on there, all while checking into the beers you sample. You can even check into locations, such as bars, breweries etc., when logging in with your beer.

You can see many things, including ratings and comments from others to places where people are drinking it. Checking out brewery pages gives you information about the brewery and its beers.

Heck, if you are a homebrewer, you can have your own brewery on there so you can have your beers there, which allows friends and family to check in and rate the beers! I have my “home brewery” listed on there.

My profile on Untappd.

Untappd has been live since Oct. 22, 2010 and was created by two people — Greg Avola and Tim Mather. The two are on opposite coasts — Avola in New York City and Mather in Los Angeles, but that is likely what helped the two bring this app to the masses.

Avola said Mather came up with the idea of checking into beers and sharing with friends.

“Since we are on opposites of the coasts, we though it would be a great tool to facilitate the sharing and discovering of beer in a Foursquare-like setting,” Avola said. “The idea behind the  app was to help connect people with beer. Right now, beer is a very social activity, but had never been presented in that way on the web before. With the app, we encourage users to try and discover new beers, venues and people to enhance their beer experience.”

And with microbrews, craft beers and so many others involved in beer, beer conventions and all things beer related, this app appears to have come along at the right time.

Avola said there are about 850,000 users at this point, which, considering it’s the two of them working part-time without an advertising budget, is an extremely solid number. Untappd is on iOS platforms, Android, Windows Phone 8, Blackberry 10, Mobile Web and, of course, on a desktop. So it’s easy enough to use the app from almost anywhere.

Checking in.

So, let’s dig into the app a little.

First and foremost, Untappd is a place where people can not only keep track of their own beers, but it’s also a social app where people can view, comment and toast friend’s choices. Checking in will also allow you to earn badges, much like social apps Foursquare and GetGlue.

There are many badges to earn, from the amount of beers you have tried, to the types of beer, the times you’ve had them and many other things. There are special badges as well, such as checking in with certain beers at a beer festival, or checking into a beer on selected holidays. Some of these badges are only out for a limited time.

“Most of all the badges come from users,” Avola said. “We believe that if users are requesting them, we should make them! We review all badge submissions and find out what badges work the best with our platform and then go from there.”

Though Avola said Untappd doesn’t usually provide data about what badges are tops on the claimed list, he said many of the style-based badges are tops. As for the ones that are the rarest? Many times, he said, it’s badges that were made early in the process, such as “Frat Party” or “Risk Taker.”

Badges are a big part of the app and users can earn many different ones.

Outside of the special ones, most badges stick around, unless there are certain issues.

“We only retire badges if they are not doing well, or cause technological issues,” Avola said.

Take for example the “Above the Clouds” badge. It’s hard to add your location as a plane when you are 30,000 feet in the air.

The social aspect is taken extra steps, too, when there are Meetups. Though there aren’t numbers as to how many of these have been done, Untappd does have a Meetup page where users can organize their own events.

“I haven’t (been to one of these events), but we have had parties to celebrate our anniversary and they have been a big hit with connecting users with each other and discovering and talking about beer,” Avola said.

One thing to remember is the app is free to use. Therefore, there are ways for users to give back, should they choose to do so. One way is by being a supporter, which costs $5 per month, $25 for six months or $50 for the year. By doing so, you not only help the app but you get some extra perks, such as personalized stats, exportable data, a support banner on your profile, and a supporter only badge.

Supporters get perks, such as statistics.

Eventually, Avola said, the Untappd crew hopes to add some extra benefits for supporters.

“As we continue to build the services, we will offer more features for supporters,” he said. “Basically, we have had this program so users can help us grow. Since we are not funded, and working part-time, we need capital to keep the service up and running at a high volume. This program helps us do that.”

They also sell some merchandise, including t-shirts, which sold out within 36 hours for the latest batch. Avola said he is hoping to have more soon, as well as new logo shirts by the end of the month.  While the focus now is shirts, Avola said they’d like to eventually have items such as coasters and glassware in the store.

So Untappd is a great social network where people can keep track of beers, but there’s one other item — breweries.

Whether a major brewery or a craft brewery or a home brewery, you can be listed on the site. And if you are somebody with the power, you can “claim” the brewery and make it official. Giving this option allows breweries to connect with users, manage the brand and analyze statistics.

You can check in with photos, rate your beer, check in at a location and your friends can toast/comment on your check in.

“The key thing is the ability to directly communicate with their fans,” Avola said. “This usually exists on Twitter now, but by pulling it into one platform, it gives them the opportunities to do so much more.”

And having home breweries on there is important as well.

“Home breweries sometimes turn in to a real brewery, so why not give them the same features?” Avola said. “People love to categorize their brews, so we think Untappd is a good spot for that.”

So if you’re a beer drinker and like to keep track of things, Untappd might be the way to go. The userface is easy and fun and you can find some great things with the app.

There are social media apps for so many things, so why not beer?

The best part is Avola and Mather don’t seem to be resting on what they have. Avola said they plan on continuing to grow the app.

“Our goal to complete change the beer industry with technology,” Avola said. “We want Untappd to be a tool for breweries, venues and consumers to help breweries find their customers, users to find the beer they want to try, and venues to tell users where that beer is.”

Online:

  • Untappd website
  • Untappd Twitter
  • Untappd Facebook

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Filed Under: blogging, cell phone, iPhone, My world Tagged With: android, android apps, beer, beer app, droid, ios applications, ios apps, phone, phone applications, phone apps, untappd, untappd app

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Tackable looking to make its mark on social networking

November 8, 2011

To say I’ve been mesmerized by the iPhone 4s would be an understatement. But not just for the phone, but the apps that are available. There are some of the most creative and innovative ideas available for use for free or a small charge.

It’s amazing how far technology has come from the days of playing Space Invaders on the ol’ Atari 2600.

Tackable is a new social media platform on iPhone (and eventually on Droid)

One of the apps that has really captured my attention and imagination is Tackable, an interesting social media platform that has hopes of joining the “Big Three” (Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin). The three mainstays all serve their purpose in the world — Facebook for friends; Twitter for quick hits, links, interesting notes and, also, friends; and Linkedin as a strong professional connection site.

Tackable is different.

It’s an app that will have assignments for photographs. It’s grassroots journalism at its finest in the digital age. Besides having the “friend” atomosphere assignments (say, food photos), you can have a lot of other things, such as the Wall Street situation.

Citizen journalism is growing with an app like this.

Add in that the cameras on phones are getting better and better, and all of a sudden citizen journalists could be helping and assisting new agencies with what is going on. With the ability to create assignments, users can help dictate the way things will go with Tackable.

And for those of you with a Droid, fear not. The Tackable crew has already started development of the Droid version and are looking to have that app out sometime in December.

 The App

One thing not to worry about — this isn’t all citizen journalism. So there’s no need to worry about becoming Clark Kent here. People can make silly or fun assignments as well.

“At its core, Tackable is a photo and video assignment platform,” said Luke Stangel, a 29-year-old who is one of the companies founders. He’s also Tackable’s Chief Marketing Officer.  “You create assignments asking for specific things, which your followers complete using their smartphones.”

You can see, respond and create assignments on the front page of the app.

For example, as I tried out the app, I posted three assignments — geocaching, disc golf and high school football. These were items that people could get. The cool thing was that with some of the photos I posted, it seemed like I got a few people interested in some of these items. At least one person went out searching for a geocache, which is excellent considering there is an app for that on the iPhone and Android operating system.

But the assignments won’t all be ones like that. Reporters and editors at media outlets can use Tackable to solicit citizen journalism. Stangel said reporters have asked for photos from three major Occupy movements in California’s Bay Area. He noted that KQED, which gives public media in Northern California, placed an assignment for photos of the general strike in Oakland.

Too, Stangel said, non-profits are experimenting with Tackable to direct people to their events.

And, of course, people are asking for things that interest them, such as the disc golf one I posted.

Tackable, too, can be a game. If you accept and fulfill an assignment, you are assigned points. You can also earn points by commenting on photos.

Most of the people on the staff have worked in social gaming, Stangel said.

“So points, levels, badges and general theories around gamification run through our DNA,” he said. “Points are a way to encourage positive behavior and friendly competition. In the early versions of the app, we’ve included a leader board, showing you how you stack up compared to the rest of the people on Tackable.”

The positive behavior he mentioned includes creating photos and videos, commenting on other media and sharing outside the app.

Many social media “games” have that feel, such as Foursquare, where one gets points based on their check ins and sees how they stack up in points against friends.

But, the points could be for more in the future, Stangel said.

These points are part of the marketing plan to make a profit. Stangel said the Tackable team things these assignments could be interesting enough to gain corporate sponsorship. So a mainstream corporation (such as a softdrink company etc.) could post an assignment where they hid something somewhere. If people find it, take a photo, they could earn a prize. Tackable would charge the company for that campaign and be the platform to transfer those items to the user, Stangel said.

Being the company began its beta testing in October and went into a wider release only recently, he said these are just thoughts at this point moving forward.

How’s it work?

This app is pretty straight forward, which makes it even better because it’s not an imposing piece of technology.

However, being in beta still, it’s got a few hiccups and bugs. I have experienced a few of them, but nothing that would scare me from the app. They update things on a decent timeline, so it’s nice to know things are being worked out. I’ve had slow periods of seeing photos (but that could be my connection, so take that into account), and I’ve had situations where I did an assignment or posted a comment and didn’t receive the points that I was supposed to get.

My profile page on Tackable.

But those items will be fixed. It’s a new app and it’s fun to watch it grow.

Overall, it’s an easy program to use.

When you first open the application, you get a screen showing available assignments. You can scroll through them to see what is there to offer. Some of these assignments are based on location — such as an Occupy event in San Francisco. Others, such as the ones I made, can be done anywhere.

Either way, the reality is people connecting through a journalistic-style social media app.

“Imagine being able to see what’s going on anywhere in the world by asking someone there to share it,” Tackable Chief Executive Officer Ed Lucero said. “It’s a real-time social search connecting people in (different) locations. … It’s magical when you make the connection. When you experience that spontaneous ‘wow, holy crap, that’s (a) way cool’ moment, you want others to feel it as well. It becomes a new social experience that drives both sides of the connection that we’re only beginning to unravel.”

Currently, assignments expire after seven days to keep the list fresh. But the team was unhappy about how quick things disappear, so Tackable is experimenting with having perpetual assignments, Stangel said.

In the end, Stangel said there will probably be a happy medium between the two.

To see information about an assignment, you tap on it. Once there, you can fill the assignment with a photo, text or video.

From the main page, you can also access your account, the rankings and other useful things. Playing with the app will allow you to find everything you need as the app as a whole is easy to navigate.

Aesthetically, it’s pretty nice, too. It’s sharp and colorful. You can change your personal icon and nothing seems distorted. Overall, it seems to branch the usability/good looking parts very well.

The Company

Tackable isn’t huge, by any means, in regard to workers. Stangel said the company has about 10 employees, including interns and part-timers.

The three at the top include Chief Executive Officer Ed Lucero, Stangel and Chief Technology Officer Steven Woo. All three have been involved with startups inSilicon Valleythat have been extremely successful. Woo, for example, was one of the principal engineers on the game Diablo II, one of the best-selling games of all-time.

On the developmental end, as well, Stangel pointed out people such as Eri Izawa and Mike Doan. Izawa, an MIT graduate who has worked in gaming for a number of years, designs the structure of the app. That means she figures out the points, how to structure people into groups and how to encourage daily participation. Doan, who previously worked for Activision, is the creative director.

The other members of the Tackable team include community manager Jonathan Stypula, server side developer Francis Chin, and Ben Eakins, who is named as the “Ben of all trades” on the company site. Tackable also lists Jackie Lai and Neyaz Nazar as interns.

Where did the idea come from?

Stangel worked at a newspaper and he was required to write a minimum of two bylined stories and two briefs. Being the police writer, he had to worry about the news cycle and when things happened. But reality was, he couldn’t always be where he had to be on time. As the news gets older and stale (especially with the Internet and other social media), it becomes harder to make it fresh.

So Stangel started to think about ways to get news alerts from the public. Something had to be done and he figured he might as well do it, he said.

He pitched the idea toLucero, who Stangel said is “the smartest executive I had ever met.” They started in early 2010, brought some people in and the team started to build and create Tackable.

“We’re far from done,” Stangel said. “There are lots of interesting things on the horizon.”

The future

In the world of social media and technology, who knows? The future seems bright, but with how things come and go, it’s going to obviously take a lot of work to become relevant.

“The future of Tackable is in empowering people, in creating networks and channels for people and groups to exchange the information they need and want,” Izawa said. “Every user — both requester and responder — has the power to shape the content for their own needs and their own audience. Serious, newsworthy stuff? Yes. Fun and casual stuff? Yes. (I am) looking forward to watching the platform do all those things, and more.”

Being the app went mainstream not long ago, the number of users is at about 1,500. However, what is coming out of those users is a positive point and gives hope for the growth of the app.

Looking at the rankings.

“Tackable right now is more about quality than quantity,” Stangel said. “However, what we’re finding is that the right types of people are trying out the app, and many are returning to the app day after day. That’s really positive news for us.”

The app is one a one-week development cycle. Basically, the company prioritize new features and bug fixes on Monday and issue a new build within seven days.

“There is a lot of energy and excitement on the team about the app,” Stangel said. “We get the feeling that there’s something really compelling here, and we’re busy doing quick tests on theories around improving engagement and retention.”

Stangel said they’ve demoed the app to nearly every major news organization in the San Francisco Bay Area and have gotten positive feedback.

But the ultimate goal?

“To become a fourth social network,” Stangel said. “We think there’s room for us in the Big Three.”

The idea, too, will be to separate itself and become a different platform in the social media world.

Stangel used Twitter as an example, noting that the platform is probably about 98 percent thoughts and two percent objects. It’s made up of links to virtual things (online articles, videos, photos etc.). Those are thoughts and though interesting, not all are valuable, he said.

The future looks bright for Tackable.

But, people also post objects to Twitter — first-hand accounts of news or photos they took themselves. Consider something big happening and no journalists are there — but people are. These accounts are very valuable, especially to new agencies.

The problem? Everything goes into the same stream. Valuable things can be swept away in the Twitter world quickly because it moves at a rapid pace. The way to stay up there is to be re-tweeted and hope the right people see it.

Theoretically, Tackable is made up purely of objects. If you ask for something, you’ll get possibly three or four (or more) perspectives.

“Our goal is that people will open up Tackable to see what’s happening near them and experience those things in real time,” Stangel said.

Follow Tackable:

  • On Twitter
  • On Facebook
Question for those of you reading: Is Tackable an app you would use? Do you find it interesting? And for iPhone users, have you tried it yet? Thoughts?

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Filed Under: cell phone, iPhone, My world, Social media Tagged With: cell phone app, droid, droid tackable, iphone, iphone tackable, san francisco startup, silicon valley, smart phone, smart phone app, smartphone, social network, social networking, tackable, tackable app

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Tis a dreary and rainy day. What better than to ha Tis a dreary and rainy day. What better than to have a cup of tea in my new mug, which was a birthday gift from my nephew/godson Cameron!
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Haircut day! I got mine done, as did Cameron. He g Haircut day! I got mine done, as did Cameron. He got some waves for when he goes to the shore next week! One shot of me getting the straight razor too! Nice job @studio11chris at @studio11barbersuite ! 

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Part one of the backyard work is done. New patio h Part one of the backyard work is done. New patio has been installed ... (the rock garden area is basically done, too ... but i need to put a few things up with it). The guy who did my patio did a great job... looks cool. 

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As a @sunydelhi alum, and local, I still love walk As a @sunydelhi alum, and local, I still love walking around the campus. It’s especially nice in the morning when college isn’t in session as it’s quiet and @harper_dublin can sniff and explore her surroundings (if in session, she will want to stop and meet every student etc.). I know a lot of people local walk the campus, and it’s really nice that we have something like this in our community to be able to do so. 

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Ok folks… barbershop experience is good times. H Ok folks… barbershop experience is good times. Hair, tend to the beard … you get it. In Oneonta, check out @studio11chris at @studio11barbersuite ! Tell him I sent you! 

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A video looking at my first year and a half of owning a golden retriever, my first dog. It's had its ups and downs, but I've truly loved the ride and look forward to the future. 

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