Geodelic, a local mobile search start-up, just went public with its funding and some screenshots. I had the opportunity to get a demo from Geodelic CEO Rahul Sonnad about a month ago and I really liked what I saw. While there is nothing really new about the basic idea behind Geodelic – find something local on your mobile device, what is new is their attempt at being a one-stop shop for local mobile search on your phone.
As anyone who has had a conversation with me about Web-based local search knows, I generally think all players in the IYP world have done a fairly poor job of creating a truly innovative user interface to help me accomplish my local search tasks in a way that is easy, useful and satisfying. As anyone who has had a conversation with me about mobile local search knows, I generally think there are too many apps trying to solve different pieces of the puzzle (Yelp, YellowPages.com, Google Voice Search, etc.) and as a user I think I just want one.
The first thing that struck me about Geodelic’s service was the design. If you think UrbanSpoon had a cool design, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by Geodelic. The thing is smooth. I think that’s best word for it. Smooth.
Beyond design, the concept as I understood it, is to start the experience by providing the user’s current location information and then allowing the user to explore from there. One of the example’s I recall is the idea of being in a maternity ward. The service knows you are in a maternity ward and can prompt you to provide assistance for all the things you might want to find related to being in a marternity ward (diapers, nearest pharmacy, a cigar to pass around maybe?, etc.). It wasn’t exactly rocket science, but it was useful.
While there are several local mobile search apps (e.g. Where) that have baked in a lot of other niche local services like Yelp Reviews, GasBuddy, OpenTable, ServiceMagic, etc., it seems like Geodelic’s ambition is for these services to be presented to you in a more relevant, contextual fashion.
While I didn’t spend enough time with the service to say that they have achieved this, I did see how the UI was interesting enough to make me want to give the service a try. And at this point in local mobile search, that’s good enough.
I really don’t want to have to use multiple apps to find what I am looking for. If Geodelic solves this problem, they will truly become “my precious”.
Geodelic’s Sherpa service will be coming soon to the new T-Mobile Android phone.
5 Response Comments
Interesting that’s it’s debuting on Android phones. I would assume they would want to deploy on the iPhone first.
Thanks for the update!
Hey nick, as I understand it they are going to be a large part of the Android experience so I am guessing that T-Mobile probably required them to come out with that before any Iphone app so it’s a differentiator.
The big issue for any such app is the content – as we have found out the hard way!
We’ve been building a content for lat/long service. Check it out at http://www.blipscape.com
The idea is that with services like these all you need is UI and some algo for snipping and sorting the data that comes through for cool app!
Can’t wait to try it on mu Iphone. I like the way Geodelic looks and just hope that it really works well, sounds like a great idea.
Here’s a question for you. I can see how impulse buys, consumables, and restaurants would want to invest in mobile local search. Get people to come to your shop while they’re out and about. But what about longer sales cycles and higher price points. Does it make sense to invest in mobile local search if you’re a hardwood floor finisher or would you invest more heavily in traditional local search?