Oct
2011
During the first phase of the internet boom, innovators wanted to connect to people across the globe. Services like AOL and MySpace exploded by bridging geographic gaps between people. Google allowed us to search the entire world. But soon, we realized technology was taking us away from our own backyards. Local community rose as a focus – and a business – on the web. You could say it started with Facebook, connecting people based on University affiliation. Hyper-local news sites like Patch and Baristanet sprang up and brought local to life. Daily Deal sites exploded. Blogs, Twitter, Foursquare – more and more tools developed for us to think globally – and act locally. All of this together – and more! – has put the hyper-local in focus as a major driver of tech-scene development, and opportunity.
Enter Street Fight – the site devoted to the business of hyperlocal:
The intersection between location-centric services like Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places; locally-targeted daily deals efforts like Groupon, LivingSocial and Yipit; and more traditional “hyperlocal” news and information sites and networks like Patch.com, Everyblock, Baristanet and the East Village Local. These are all marked by big new ideas, shifting consumer behavior, and technology-enabled innovation — and a similar push of venture funding is enabling serious projects that promise to build a new world of local advertising and commerce.
At last week’s Street Fight Summit, founder and CEO of Street Fight, Laura Rich, aimed to bring together these new ideas, attitudes and technologies to examine the future path of hyperlocal. Hashable was excited to attend part of the summit and learn from some of the great presenters. Here are some highlights:
How to be a standalone Hyperlocal news site?
To survive and thrive as a standalone hyperlocal, you need a dedicated audience. Provide great content to your readers, and they will be your greatest advocates. Debra Galant of Baristanet pushed the point that as a small news site, readers are your biggest advocates and enable smaller news sites to compete with local Patch sites.
How do hyperlocal news sites compete with Patch?
At the same time, Michael Shapiro stressed that Patch is a great player in the local news field and offers the competition needed to spur great journalism.
But how do hyperlocal news sites get ads?
Debra Galant and Scott Broadbeck, editor and publisher of ARLnow.com, reiterate that their addicted readers are their biggest advocates and often function as a de facto sales team, driving local merchants to purchase ad space. The issue is, merchants don’t understand digital ads, so many local news sites sell ads like newspapers, which can often cheat the merchants. There is a definite need for companies like Google, Clickable and American Express to work with their small business customers and educate them on these new concepts, otherwise, they are missing out on huge economic growth.
Two new hyperlocal experiments stood out of the crowd: CityPockets and Zaarly
CityPockets, founded by Cheryl Yeoh, is a virtual wallet and secondhand marketplace for daily deals. As a management tool for daily deals vouchers, CityPockets is able to glean a stunning amount of data about daily deals users and their spending habits. For example, $1.2 Billion is wasted each year due to forgotten or expired daily deals vouchers. CityPockets tries to compromise for this loss by providing users with a secondhand marketplace, with 41% of deals re-sold at a break even price and 25% for a profit. Needless to say, CityPockets made quite an impression.
Zaarly, a mobile geo-specific marketplace to buy and sell anything, is a product of New York City’s startup weekend. CEO, Bo Fishback, took the stage and offered his candid opinion on the potential for businesses to harness the power of “local”. “There’s a lot of things about this [hyperlocal] hotness that are better than the last hotness,” said Fishback, referring to the bubble burst of the 90’s. The rise of consumer mobile GPS is huge, according to Fishback and “there aren’t enough people to exploit this opportunity.” Zaarly is currently focused on building the best product to connect consumers with the people and products around them. Until then, download the Zaarly app to start buying and selling. For those in Gotham City, NYC is the biggest Zaarly market, so trust you will find some opportunities and sales (in fact, Zaarly just moved to Manhattan from San Francisco to exploit their presence in the market).
Why is NYC the right place to incubate a hyperlocal tech company?
Dave Tisch, managing director of TechStars NYC pushed that the business and population density are biggest drivers for starting up hyperlocals in the five boroughs. Owen Davis, managing director of NYC Seed, identified that while the overflowing market for hyperlocal businesses is a huge driver, the relationship to the urban environment is dramatically different is New York City, as compared to other cities across the globe, making it the perfect environment to test new tools and services.
Why Foursquare’s testing worked in NYC
Panel Moderator, Lockhart Steele, recalled a conversation he had with Dennis Crowley, founder and CEO of Foursquare. Crowley mentioned that the best part about testing products in New York City is the diverse marketplace of new media consumers. “Here in New York City, your product gets tested by journalists & fashionistas, which helps make a better rounded product” This testing market ultimately gives you a better product that appeals to different tastes.
…whoof. Is that enough hyperlocal for you? For the full run-down, check out Jeremy Caplan’s storify of the entire summit and Street Fight’s own detailed recaps. Thanks very much to the Street Fight team for an amazing first conference.
Oct
2011
Steve Jobs’ official biography by Walter Isaacson went on sale this morning in real life bookstores and eBook stores around the globe. Issacson’s book has some fascinating insights into the mercurial CEO, and media outlets have been rolling out bits and pieces of the biography in advance of today’s big release. While you may have heard of Jobs’ general animosity towards Google and his slightly radical temperment, here’s some our favorite facts about Steve:
On Design
Jobs was known for his dedication to design and perfection, and that temperament was passed down to him by his father. “Paul jobs was a Salt of the earth guy who was a great mechanic,” said Isaacson in an interview with 60 minutes. “And he taught his son steve how to make great things. Once they were making a fence and he said, ‘You gotta make the back of the fence that no one will see, just as good looking as the front of the fence. Even though nobody will see it, you will know. That will show that you’re dedicated to making something perfect.’”
The Original Phone Hacker
One of Steve’s first hacks was with his later business partner Steve Wozniak. They re-created something called the “blue box” which was a tool that reproduced phone company tones, allowing users to make illegal long-distance calls. It was this hack that prompted the Steves to start Apple. Jobs said to Issacson, “With my marketing skills and Wozniak’s great design, we could sell anything.”
In Pursuit of Nirvana
Steve Jobs, like many free thinkers in his day, traveled to India in search of enlightenment. According to Issacson, Buddhism was a strong influence on his design sense. The idea that “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” is at the core of Apple’s philosophy.
A Humble Billionaire
Jobs was never the materialistic type. His house in Palo Alto was on a regular street, with no live-in help and no fancy driveway. He kept a humble demeanor in spite of his obvious wealth because he had seen how money had changed people in his life, specifically his colleagues at Apple. “I saw a lot of other people at Apple especially after we went public and how it changed them. And a lot of people thought they had to start being rich. So a few people went out and bought Rolls Royces..their wives went out and got plastic surgery…and I saw these really nice, simple people turn into these bizzarro people. And I made a promise to myself: I’m not going to let this money ruin my life.”
According to Issacson, Apple board member Art Levinson was the man who convinced Jobs to take on third party apps. Initially, Jobs did not think his team had the bandwith to “police” third-party developers. Little did he know that the Apps bazaar would create a whole new industry of products and innovation. Good thing the typically cantankerous CEO was able to be swayed, otherwise you wouldn’t have Hashable!
A Television Pioneer
One product Apple had not tackled in Jobs’ lifetime was the television. “He very much wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: make them simple and elegant,” Isaacson wrote. “‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’”
A Mysterious Long-Lost Son
Jobs met his biological father, unbeknownst to the two of them. He and his sister, Mona Simpson, tracked down their mutual biological father Abdulfattah John Jandali. While Steve did not want to meet him, Mona took the plunge and met Jandali at the restaurant he was managing at the time. Upon meeting, he said to her “I wish you could have seen me when I was running a bigger restaurant…Everybody used to come there. Even Steve Jobs used to eat there…He was a great tipper.” Jobs remembers meeting his father at the restaurant in Palo Alto years before. “We shook hands,” he said.
On Mortality
Death was a frequent conversation between Isaacson and Jobs. In one interview Job said, “I saw my life as an arc, and it would end. And compared to that, nothing mattered. You know, I mean. You’re born alone you’re going to die alone. What exactly is it that you have to lose Steve…nothing!”
One day, Steve and Walter were sitting in Jobs’ backyard, and they began discussing God. “Sometimes I believe in god, sometimes I don’t…but ever since I’ve had cancer I’ve been thinking about it more. Maybe because I want to believe in an afterlife that after you die, it doesn’t always disappear. The wisdom you’ve accumulated it lives on…but sometimes I think it’s like an on and off switch. Click and you’re gone…that’s why I don’t like putting on and off switches on Apple devices.”
The iconic CEO is now not only memorialized in our devices, but now in a 500+ page book. We suggest you leave your office now and grab a copy–or if you’re an Apple loyalist, get it on iBooks and read it on your iPad.
Photo via Obama Pacman
Oct
2011
“If you had five minutes on stage, what would you say?” Those brave enough to answer that question present at Ignite NYC, a way for thinkers and doers to share their advice and experience with others in 5 minutes, based off 20 slides. Last night the Ignite NYC team celebrated their 13th presentation series as a closing event to the first day of the Web 2.0 Expo. These mini-talks ran the gamut of how to de-stale cheerios to the experiences of a “before and after” fitness model to how to insert more gratification into your workday. Ignite presentations can be zany and inspiring — and last night were especially so (the audience of over 800 was appropriatedly ignited). Here are our favorite quotes of the night from each speaker:
1) @MichelleBee: Mayor McCheese is the force that creates cohesive community. Community Managers should throw their money into finding Mayor McCheese. When you build that community they are going to be tight.
2) @MattLeMay: Music is stupid software, but musicians have to be really smart entrepreneurs. They balance old & new business models, design their products with emotion, are the best community managers and they keep going when the going gets tough.
3) @Corvida: The best way to destale cherrios? While liquid nitrogen and a George Foreman grill might do the trick, you’re probably best off purchasing another box.
4) @SuraJStar: While twitter is a great way to share information, the self-selection isolates opinions by creating echo chambers where users can reinforce their own beliefs.
5) @Shaka_Lulu: Current pictures of the sky are mere moments in Astronomy. We will soon see a movie of the sky, of stars consuming one another.
6) @JonLevyTLB: People do crazy things to change their body, like eat 4,000 calories worth of chicken and dislocate their legs.
7) @SarahFeingold: “In life, just like in jewelry and in law, you have to pay attention to the details.”
8) @Mmalkoff: “If you make conservative safe choices you get conservative safe results” — on racing an MTA bus across town in a kids’ big wheeler.
9) @Desifeminista: On the five dating myths…“Dating is socially sanctioned torture”
10) @SippingInk: Being an actor in LA is also like socially sanctioned torture. You’re better off moving to NYC, getting a degree from ITP and working at TechStars.
11) @Jackfoundation: Tweeting is great, but enjoy the world around you…and call your grandmother!
12) @kn0thing: Use the brilliance of geek culture to make the world “suck less”.
13) @akko: Do you feel chained to your work desk? You don’t need as vacation, you need a workcation–taking your work day outside of the office.
14) @TerezaN: “Ask excellent questions to create honest moments”
15) @nickcrocker: how do you change yourself? Pick one thing, change a little bit at a time, create a chain of change, and always remember “floss the teeth you want to keep.”
16) @Bougie: Ruby on Rails Barbie will not get more women in tech. You know what will? Stop calling yourself a girl — give yourself power. Call yourself a woman.
…and finally, from Hashable’s very own Emma Persky:
17) @emmapersky: Winning at Karaoke is easy if you add your own array of drama. “Go epic or go home”
Epic, indeed. Check out all the presentations online here and follow @igniteNYC for updates on the next Ignite.
Image via Flickr
Oct
2011
Image by clvrmnky via Flickr
We know tons of fantastic women programmers working to solve the world’s toughest problems through code. But do you know who started the trend of ladies who tech? Welcome, Ada Lovelace, the first ever computer programmer, who in 1842, created what is known today as the first computer program — an algorithm for calculating Bernoulli numbers. It is in her name that we celebrate Ada Lovelace Day - the day to celebrate the contributions of women to science, tech, engineering and mathematics.
A quick history: Ada Lovelace was born in 1815 as Ada Agusta Byron – daughter of Romantic poet Lord Byron (though she had no relationship with him as he left the home shortly after her birth and died when she was nine). Raised by her mother, Ann Isabella Milbanke, she showed an aptitude for mathematics, studying with renowned mathematicians and eventually meeting Charles Babbage, inventor, engineer and Cambridge professor of Mathematics, at the ripe age of 17. They developed a friendship, and soon, Babbage was looking to Ada for advice and edits to his papers. On one occasion, Babbage, who was interested in developing a calculating machine, found a memoir on the subject and asked Ada to translate it for him from the original French. While translating, Ada made a series of notes, marked A to G, which modeled the formula that would make her a legend to women – and math nerds – the world over.
The text of her program was published in 1953 – 101 years after her death – and is recognized as an early model for computers and software. In fact, the first computer language used by the department of defense was named “Ada”in her honor. And, of course, Ada Lovelace Day.
Want to learn more about Ada? We love these links:
Ada Lovelace cartoon from BrainPop
Ada Lovelace Day: Celebrate Women in Technology by Jenny Williams
Ada Lovelace Day: Women In Science and Other Resources
FindingAda.Org, a resource about great women in STEM and for women in STEM careers
Ada Lovelace Photo Essay from the Flickr Blog
Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day from Scientific American
A Storify of the best tweets from Ada Lovelace Day
***Holidays are meant to inspire awareness, but don’t treat Ada Lovelace day as a one day event. The best way to celebrate Ada Lovelace day is to celebrate women in STEM everyday. Send cheers to the Adas in your life, whether they are tenured professors at Cambridge or young girls breaking circuits in their bedrooms.
Oct
2011
The news yesterday that Apple founder and global tech visionary Steve Jobs had died reverberated through my Twitter stream. It was clear that people were deeply shaken, and deeply saddened. Time magazine stopped their presses to devote the week’s entire issue to Jobs. At a tech event I attended last night, I overheard a forty-something guy in a suit say that he had never reacted like this to the death of a business leader, that he wasn’t expecting to feel so sad.
I wasn’t expecting to feel so sad either. I’m not a lifelong Apple fangirl, or even a lifelong tech geek. I vividly remember moments of Mac-generated wonder, but came late to the Apple-love party. I was even a PC girl until two years ago, and have not even owned my iPhone or iPad for a year. But when you work in the tech industry, as I have for the past two years, you come by love and respect for Apple by osmosis. Not just because they are beautiful and easy to use, but because you realize quickly that they have just changed everything. “There’s an app for that,” did not exist 3 years ago; 5 years ago, the iPhone – the place to find those apps – didn’t exist, either. Steve Jobs died just a few weeks shy of a decade after the launch of the iPod: October 23, 2001.
“Great products don’t just showcase creativity; they unlock it in others,” wrote Hashable Director of Products Dave Sebag when it was announced that Jobs was going on medical leave. “I think this explains all the Steve Jobs love today.” This is the other reason you can’t move within the tech industry impervious to the impact of Jobs and Apple. Instagram. Square. Foursquare. Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Words With Friends. Evernote. And, Hashable. Apple created beautiful, functional products – and a fundamental platform upon which an entire industry — and the progress it has wrought — has been built. Read the rest of this entry »
Sep
2011
Attention Android users: We have another update for you! Version 2.1 is here to give you a better and more seamless Hashable experience. Our developers Joe and Aaron have added some great new features to create a quicker and more fluid tool for storing and managing your contacts. Head over to the Android market for an update and here’s what you’ll get:
Simplified Hashing: We’ve streamlined the process of saving connections. There’s a lot less to think about while Hashing. Let us know how you like it!
New filters by location: Want to get a list of all the people you met at your last event? With our newest filter you can search and browse your connections by location – including at specific venues, like that meeting you had last week at Starbucks on 14th St.
Set notes and reminders offline: No wifi? No problem! You can now set connections, notes and reminders offline, making it even easier to keep track of your connections no matter where you are. Hash on the A train and your data will sync when you get your 3 (or 4) G back.
Sticky location: Are you at a conference? Going to be in the same place for a while? We’ll now detect this and bring up your previous location when you are still in the vicinity. It’s great for Hashing multiple people in a row at an event.
Hash faster! Hashable now provides email address autocomplete suggestions for common email addresses and merges email addresses and twitter handles for new contacts, so you can spend less time typing. Huge.
General upgrade: We’ve fixed a few bugs – also, the app is now faster and takes up less space on your phone. It’s the little things.
Here’s what it will look like:
Get the new update here and feel free to ping us at @hashablesupport or support@hashable.com with questions and feedback.(iPhone users, your version is here.) Enjoy the new app – hope you find it useful!
Sep
2011
Happy September! Since our release of Hashable Version 2.0, we’ve been working hard to make Hashable quicker, better and more useful. With today’s release, we have. So update your iPhone, because we’ve added the following features:
- Filter by location – Trying to remember that dude’s name from that conference in Dallas? You can now search and browse people you’ve connected with by location. Pick a city, and lo, a menu will drop down with all the places you’ve been.
- Set notes and reminders offline – Stuck in a subway and want to set a reminder or make a note about someone? You can now do this offline – Hashable will sync the data when you regain connectivity. Underground productivity FTW.
- Search notes – You can now search the contents of notes you made on people directly in the app. You can also scan them all in one view via the ‘Filter’ button.
- Hash faster! – Hashable now provides email address autocomplete suggestions for new contacts so you can spend less time typing on a mobile keyboard. Huge.
- Autocomplete profiles – If you hash someone using an email address and that person has a Twitter handle, Hashable will merge the person’s Twitter avatar, name, and bio automatically.
- General upgrade – Performance improvements and bug fixes, so your product can work better
Here’s a quick look at what the updated screen will look like:
Yes, I should probably clear some of those notifications, and yes, I should probably charge my phone. And yes, you should go update your iPhone! Go ahead and download it here . As always, feel free to ping us @hashable, support@hashable.com or comment on this post with feedback or questions. We hope you find this useful!
Aug
2011
As the summer begins to wind down, we unfortunately need to say goodbye to our two Hash interns, Kishin Manglani and John Exley (feel free to ask them questions!). We are currently seeking candidates for our Fall 2011 Marketing and Community internship. You can find more details below:
Hashable’s Marketing & Community team is seeking highly versatile and passionate candidates for a three month paid internship. This fantastic opportunity is for students or recent grads looking for experience or those trying to break into the NYC startup scene. During this period you will work full-time in our office in midtown Manhattan (no remote workers – sorry!). The ideal timing is September through November.
Responsibilities:
- Implement marketing strategy by producing marketing collateral
- Produce both internal and external deliverables from press to analytics
- Find companies to build partnerships and gain sponsorships
- Working closely with Hashable’s Community Manager to build and foster our community of users
- Consistently and effectively use social media to convey Hashable’s goals, vision and culture
Requirements:
- Familiarity with the standard tech tools – Dropbox, Excel, Powerpoint
- Ability to learn quickly
- Ability to multi-task and prioritize
- Passion for our product – we expect you to have downloaded and used our app
- Savvy and experience with social media
- Analytical ability to suggest methods and avenues for improvement to processes
- Personable and outgoing personality
Apply:
- Local candidates interested in startups and technology are preferred. Those from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply, as we appreciate diverse skill sets.
- Submit your resume and a brief cover letter to jobs at hashable.com. Please include “#internship” in the subject line
- Include relevant links such as personal website, blog, Twitter profile, and Hashable profile
Aug
2011
(Step 1): Apply for an internship. (Step 2): Submit your resume. (Step 3): Wait for an interview. (Step 4): Complete the interview. (Step 5): Send a follow-up message, thanking the interviewer for the opportunity. (Step 5.5): Wait to hear if you got the internship.
That’s it, right? …Wrong. If that was ever the case, it certainly isn’t anymore.
Chances are, if you’re gunning for ‘the perfect internship’ with a company you love – the ball will be in your court to prove that you are right for the company. It’s going to take a lot more than the standard application process to make it happen.
Here are 7 ways you can put yourself in the right place to secure the perfect internship:
1. FIND THE RIGHT COMPANY
Start by making some ‘top 3′ lists. What are the top 3 cities where you’d like to intern? What are the 3 companies in each city that you’d most like to intern for? Which 3 industries interest you the most?
Narrow down your search, make an overall top 3 list of companies you’d love to intern for, and start pursuing your absolute favorite. Ready to hustle? Let the chase for your perfect internship begin.
2. REFINE YOUR WEB PRESENCE
Heads up: your interview will occur around the clock and in public (based on your activity around the web) until you are are either given an offer or told “sorry, maybe next year…” So, you better refine your web presence. Make sure it’s crisp and up-to-date. Reflect on your past experiences and create a logical (and emotionally engaging) narrative for how your experiences have lead you to believe this company would be your perfect internship.
#HashTip: Start a blog and write about the industry and/or interview people who work in it!
3. EXPRESS YOUR INTEREST EXPLICITLY
Start by creating a compelling value proposition for the company that marries the skills you offer as an intern with the company’s short term needs. You need to sell yourself convincingly. Next, find and research the person who you think will have the most say in hiring you. Then, establish your first deliberate point of contact with the company (don’t forget to be explicit about expressing your desire to intern for them!).
#HashTip: Communicate your long term interest in potentially working for the company after graduation if possible. Nobody wants to hire a skittish, quickly-on-to-the-next-one, ‘fairweather fan‘ type of intern who loses interest before even reaching the halfway point of an internship!
4. FIND OUT EVERYTHING YOU CAN ABOUT THE COMPANY
How are you going to stand out? Take your research to a new level. Carefully read the company’s support forums (e.g. UserVoice, GetSatisfaction, ZenDesk, etc.), meticulously search through their mentions on Twitter, participate in Q&A threads about the company on Quora, and comb Google in search of blogs and articles talking about them. You should obsessively study every piece of product feedback you can find, from feature requests to bug reports. Your extensive research will demonstrate to the company that you are assertive, motivated, and detailed in your work.
#HashTip: Practice explaining the product to your parents and grandparents! You need to become a knowledgable user of the product and a pseudo ambassador for the brand.
5. RELATIONSHIPS. NETWORK. RELATIONSHIPS. NETWORK. RELATIONSHIPS.
Build, maintain. Build, maintain. Build, maintain. It cannot be emphasized enough how important it is to build and maintain strong relationships with users of the product, industry professionals, and in general ‘people who will be able to speak on your behalf’. Try to engage people orders of magnitude ahead of you in their careers. For example, if you are pursuing a business development intern position, try to find some biz dev professionals who can unofficially mentor you.
#HashTip: The harder you work to help others, the more likely you will one day have respectable people who will be happy to endorse your work!
6. BEING PERSISTENT PAYS OFF
There is a thin line between being persistent in a good way and annoyingly stalking a company. However, finding a creative way to stay on the company’s radar or directly reach back out to them to follow-up is not just acceptable, in most cases it is absolutely imperative. This is where publicly visible evangelism comes into play. To really stay on their radar, ask your mentor to send a personal recommendation of you to the company.
#HashTip: Many companies probably say some version of “You’re great! We’ll follow up with you in…“ after interviewing promising candidates – but what most of them actually mean to say is “if you really want (and deserve) the internship, you will earn it by finding a creative way to get back on our radar and follow up with us before it’s too late”.
7. BEING PASSIONATE WILL SEAL THE DEAL
At this point, you’ve basically done everything you can to provide evidence that you would be a valuable intern for the company. What’s left is most likely a test to see if your character is a good fit for the team’s culture, as well as some sort of ‘final observation’ to see if you are actually fully committed to the opportunity. If you can demonstrate your passion for their space, their product, their team, and overall that you are just a passionate individual…it might just be the icing on the cake for you to achieve your perfect internship.
#HashTip: Read through your favorite 3-5 articles that have been written about the company and then try to write the ultimate blog post (complete with a thorough, detailed explanation of their product) for your own blog. Link to the other stories where appropriate and mix in a consistent tone of excitement!
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*NOTE: A lot of these principles played into my own experience getting my internship at Hashable. Click here to read the story (it’s the craziest, most detailed story I’ve ever written).
Thanks for reading! If you have any tips or pointers to add, please do. Also, we want to hear your stories of the craziest things you (or your friends) have done in pursuit of the internship you really wanted! Drop a comment below.
Jul
2011
Welcome to Hashable 2.0! We’re very excited to bring you the brand new version of our Hashable app on iPhone and Android. Download it now! Go ahead, we’ll wait.
The new version builds on the core utility of Hashable: making networking easier, more efficient and more useful for everyone. When we came out with Hashable 1.0, we wanted to create a service that would allow people to track their true connections and ongoing relationships in the real-time world. We wanted our users to easily save and remember everyone they met, keep track of meetings and interactions, and send virtual business cards to kick off relationships, quickly and paper-free.
Hashable 2.0 builds on that. After letting the service take hold amongst our community (you!) we let the feedback roll in – and listened to what our users wanted. You clearly wanted to connect – but what we learned was that you wanted to anchor that connection with notes, reminders and a sense of how those connections build into your larger network. You also wanted a personal, private tool - great for public connecting, when it’s convenient.
So, with that in mind, here are some of the new features we added to our mobile app:
See a list of your reminders
- Reminders – Add follow-up reminders for each contact. Schedule them in advance and integrate it with your smartphone calendar. Use our reminders list to manage your day based on the connections you need to make.
- Messages – send quick follow-up messages (thank you, meeting notes, etc) while you save the details of your meeting.
- Default Privacy Settings – Keep your network private. Every person you hash will default to a private connection. Anything you opt to share will only be made public to your Inner Circle, and no tweet will be sent without your opt-in.
View integrated contact details
- Integrated Contact Information - Email, tweet, call, text or hash anyone directly from the Hashable address book.
- Private Notes – Add a private note about your contacts, to remember and keep track of key details.
View relationship history
- Relationship histories – A quick tap on any contact will show a history of your interactions with the person, dated and with all tags and co-connections. (Incredibly useful for those “Who the heck is this person?” moments)
- Tap-free Networking – For those of you with Android phones that can support Near-Field Communication (NFC), you can now exchange contact information with people by just putting your phones together back-to-back.
- Send business cards at any time – You no longer have to tag a connection as a “Just Met” to send a business card. Anytime you hash someone – with any type of connection – you can send them a business card.
Hashable is still a very social app – after all, networking is all about personal connections – and we have still retained all the non-app functionality that many of our users rely on day-to-day. But the social layer has to be built on the utility layer, and that is what we have strengthened in Hashable 2.0.
We welcome you to download the latest version of the Android and iPhone app and check it out. And as always, please keep the feedback coming. We want to know what you think!
-Team Hashable