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I’ve been a BK user for a while, long before I had an iphone. I would check in occasionally, but of course, it’s so much easier now that I can do it from my iphone. Overall, I like the iphone app. It’s clean, easy to use, updates to Twitter (which updates my facebook status). I have one really big complaint: I can’t type in where I’m at. I’ll give three concrete examples of why I am annoyed.
1) I’m at Southern Sun. A very popular, well-known, awesome place to hang out. Brightkite can’t locate me there. That sucks. I want people to know I’m at the Southern Sun. Caffe Sole is not the same as Southern Sun. The picture I posted of my friends drinking beer is clearly not Caffe Sole.
2) I had a meeting with Eventvue on Pearl Street. It’s a new office. Brightkite doesn’t know that (even though EV is a fellow TechStars company). I wouldn’t mind, except BK apparently doesn’t want me to be able to share that information. It’s one way: “we know where you are”, except clearly not.
3) This broke the camel’s back. I’m at the University. I’m at the business school. It’s not the same as the law library or the Coors event center, or the engineering center. It’s the business school. What good is brightkite to me if I can’t tell people who might be at the business school that I’m there (and not at the Fiske Planetarium).
I am happy to use, promote, advocate, and educate people I meet about cool local companies like Brightkite, but when I demo the app at Southern Sun, I don’t want to have to explain why it doesn’t work. If you want to be viral, it has to just work. See Urbanspoon for an example of the perfect viral app.
