Brightkite and location based micro-reviewing
Last night my brother Leigh and I were wandering around Chinatown trying to find a place for a quick eat. Finally we settled on XIC Lo Vietnamese Restaurant because I liked the look of their aluminum benches. It would be like eating off an autopsy table. Appetising. We sat down and before looking at the menus we took out our iPhones and ‘checked in’. Using Brightkite we posted our location onto the web for all the world to see.
Not too long ago I was teasing Simon Reynolds for taking out his iPhone and updating his facebook status when we met for a brief coffee.
‘Do you really think your friends care which cafe you’re having coffee at?’ I asked
‘Yeh, I’d love to know where all my friends were now and what they were doing,’ he replied.
I originally laughed off Simon’s urge to be constantly connected but as I began to start playing with my own iPhone and its various networking apps I began to see the value in these tools and in particular Brightkite. By logging into a location, posting notes and photos at that location, Brighkite will begin to build up a database of micro reviews that people can consider before drinking, dancing, or dining at that location.
It will completely alter the urban environment and each cafe, restaurant, bar, club, shop or university will have the equivalent of a public notice board plastered on the door. On this notice board there will be comments like ‘the DJ here needs to stop listening to the top 40’ or ‘the coffee was served too cold’ or ‘the corn fritters here are incredible’. It will be the equivalent of reviews at the bottom of amazon book listings, user generated rating thats will ultimately affect the success or failure of a location.
I look forward to this near future where I won’t have too much trouble trying to decide which place to eat noodles at in Chinatown.