TrustedPlaces is pleased to announce that Facebook's growing
membership will now be able to "roam" directly onto the TrustedPlaces
site. The Company is also announcing a number of new features namely:
capability for members to create video reviews; the launch of a
syndication widget; and the introduction of richer business information
for their listings. These improvements mark a noticeable enhancement to
the service offering, placing the company at the leading edge of
product development in its field.
TrustedPlaces is a vibrant social network site, based in the UK but
with an international membership, providing peer reviews on members'
favourite lifestyle locations. Originally based on London venues, its
growing passionate, global community share their opinions on what's
great and what's to be avoided in their area and city. The site is now
growing rapidly and nearing 5000 member reviews on restaurants, bars,
pubs, clubs, cafes and much more. These are now spread across 301
cities in 35 countries.
TrustedPlaces received its first round of funding earlier this year
from HOWZAT Media, the investment fund set up by the entrepreneurs
behind Cheapflights - the leading flights search engine.
The product improvements include:
* Linkage with Facebook
Facebook is the fastest growing social network for over-25s in the UK.
Now members of Facebook can seamlessly 'roam' onto TrustedPlaces,share
content and relationships across the two communities, without having to
register for a separate account This presents a shift from the
traditional walled-garden approach of previous generation online
communities and allows TrustedPlaces to tap into an exponentially
growing, global community of 22 million members.
* Ability for TrustedPlaces members to upload video reviews Video is a
hot topic for local search right now and TrustedPlaces is enabling its
members to share experiences of their favourite places through this
rich medium. To kick the service off TrustedPlaces is combing the video
capability with one of the things they do best - getting people who
socialise online to meet in the real world and enjoy some of the things
about which they're passionate. The recent 'gastro- tour" of Borough
Market is a case in point and is accompanied by a mouth watering video
clip.
* Launch of the TrustedWidget that allows reviews to be syndicated
across different sites. In the current spirit of open standards the
company is now enabling the export of content from TrustedPlaces with
the addition of the TrustedWidget, which is a novel web application
that allows anyone to specify an area or city, pull the latest reviews
created by the TrustedPlaces community and easily display the content
on an external blog or website.
* Improved interface and richer information for every listed business.
The addition of an updated core database, which allows users to view a
place's phone number, website, nearest transport links, a sample
photograph and a list of special features, now renders the service a
complete city guide in its own right.
Sokratis Papafloratos, TrustedPlaces CEO and co-founder commented on
the recent changes :
'When we started TrustedPlaces nearly a year ago, we promised to our
members that we would listen to their feedback and continue to evolve
TrustedPlaces with their views serving a guiding compass. The recent
changes go a long way towards addressing some of the most common
requests we've had and, at the same time, throw in a few pleasant
surprises. These mark the beginning of a very active summer for us with
a number of further improvements along the way.'
Reflecting on the wider industry trends and how they are affecting
smaller social networks he added that:
'We're witnessing a key change in the way people use web applications;
embrace social networking; create and share content. However, gaining
and retaining a user's loyalty depends on the quality of the product
offering more than ever. The barriers between services are coming down
and technology is enabling content to travel across sites more easily.
We actively embrace this change - the Facebook linkage and
TrustedWidget development demonstrate that and indicate the direction
of further TrustedPlaces development.'
About the Author
Sokratis Papafloratos is the co-founder of TrustedPlaces, along with
Walid Al Saqqaf. Previously he headed up European Operations for
Wideray, a Sequoia-funded mobile startup with offices in London and San
Francisco. Prior to that role, he lead global technology integration
and marketing programmes for the Vodafone Group. He holds a MEng in
Electronic Engineering from the University of York.
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Distributed by Hasan Shrek, independence blogger. Also run online business ,internet marketing solution , online store script .
Beside he is writing some others blogs for notebook computer , computer training , computer software and personal computer
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