Everywhere I look these past couple of days, I’ve seen Wi-Fi. From revelling in playing the ‘which brand is behind the mystery Wi-Fi blogger briefing’ game (that was meant to happen yesterday), to spotting the Total HotSpots/Rummble iPhone app pop up on The Gadget Show.
BT’s new ‘pocket concierge’ service btmyplace.com is being publicly launched today, which is available to any wireless device accessing the BT Openzone Wi-Fi network from Central London and the West End.
Although finding the actual login is a little tough, sign up only took a few minutes. I’ve come to expect this of late from new services, so its not exactly a USP, but it would be more noticeable if it wasn’t so smooth. This isn’t an observation about BT, more something far more general that probably speaks to how fast we expect things to move nowadays.
Anyway, once you’ve registered a few preferences (favourite food/music/shop/film genre), you’re served content based on those choices, and your current location. I had a look at the UI, which I have to say is pretty slick, but I couldn’t try out the targeting as I wasn’t logging on via an OpenZone connection. This element of the service does limit the uptake, but with such a large volume of users logging on for short periods of time via BT across London - there’s still a pretty large target audience.
The only thing I’m slightly bemused by is the drawn out personalisation process. I had expected that clicking on ‘find my nearest’ would give me a drop down list of activities I’d already highlighted, then show them on the map. Instead, I was presented with a list of amenities and practicalities like my nearest hospital or petrol station. However, you can then drill down into one of the five tabs that run across the top of the screen, which will give you detailed information on say, local restaurants. You can choose to see this on the map - which may seem a little convoluted, but works very well.
In other news, Rummble and Total Hotspots have launched a hotspot finder for the iPhone that’s based upon a combination of Rummble’s LBS platform and API, with the Global Wi-Fi Hotspots Directory. This makes the Total Hotspots database available to millions of iPhone users, in an app that leverages some of iPhone’s unique capabilities.
Alex from Total Hotspots is right, there isn’t much to separate the large number of local search start-ups currently competing for users, but Rummble’s offering focuses on quality and accuracy - rather than quantity of ratings and reviews. Like so many intelligent apps and services, the more information you feed in - the more relevant it becomes. Not only can you find places to access Wi-Fi nearby, rate, and view comments - but also add new ones. Intelligence comes from sharing information, so this has hit it right on the button. And after just a few days, the app (priced at £2.99) is the fourth most popular in the UK.
The birth of this relationship begins aboard the MySpace bus at FOWA, and after a super speedy development process/launch, both companies are working towards a much deeper integration plan that will continue over the coming months.