Our Whrrld

Whrrl Update Available for the iPhone App (1.5.1)

Danielle Morrill — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:49:56 +0000

Whrrl users on the iPhone, you've got an update waiting. Thanks to @chartier for being first to break the news on Twitter. The newest version of the Whrrl iPhone app has many improvements that are sure to make you say wow!

Maps Zoom

Pinch and double-tap to zoom in and out, and pan across the map with slide. Different zoom levels will surface different points of interest. Icons with stars in the middle are places that are recommended for you based on where people in your network have been, as well as what they thought of the places they visited.

Whrrl Radar

Shows you the locations of your friends on the map, even if they're outside the window you're currently viewing. Tap the person icon on the edge of the map, and you'll see the name(s) of the people it represents. Tap a person's name, and your map will move to their location.

Jump to a Location

Move the map to a specific location that you input in the text box. Use an address, city, or zip code to quickly center the map anywhere in the United States.

To move the map back to your current location by tapping the compass icon in the upper left corner. The will also be a compass in your Whrrl Radar (it's in the first screenshot) that you can tap to jump back to your physical location on the map.

Talking About New Features with Justin from TalkingHeadTV.com

Thanks for all the feedback via Twitter as well as in various reviews, we're listening to everything you have to say and can't wait to bring you even more Whrrl goodness in future releases. If you want to reach us directly, you can email feedback@whrrl.com or send a message @Whrrl on Twitter.

Follow Your Favorite Entourage Characters on Whrrl

Danielle Morrill — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:25:08 +0000

We've teamed up with HBO to bring the characters from the TV series Entourage to Whrrl.

Did you love it when the characters from Mad Men started posting on Twitter? Around here we think this is a great creative twist on using social media to make a connection between fans and the characters they love (or love to hate). We're excited to be working with the folks from Deep Focus on this promotion - these are people who get the power of social media.

The Boys Are Back in Town

Find out what Vince, E, Johnny (Drama), Turtle and Ari think of the places they've visited in all four seasons of the show. There might even be some realtime updates from them as well... you'll have to go to Whrrl to find out.

I admit, I need some Entourage education from diehard fans. I stumbled on a couple of reviews from the characters on Whrrl that certainly got my attention. Here's my favorite so far from Eric - gives me an idea of the sort of things happening on the show. Hmmm...

Season Premiere Party

There's talk about having a series premiere party somewhere in Seattle - if you're interested in helping plan, or want to come, leave it in the comments. The season premiere is on HBO - September 7th at 10pm!

Share Your Whrrl Location and Status on Twitter

Sunil Garg — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:32:19 +0000

Hey Whrrlers! I'm an intern from the University of Washington spending this summer working with Pelago's web team. Like many of you, I've wanted to connect my Whrrl and Twitter accounts for a while. Today I'm happy to announce this wish has come true.

Now you can share where you're going and what you're doing with your followers on Twitter. If you choose, your status and/or location updates on Whrrl can be published to your Twitter account in real time, whether you update Whrrl via the web, SMS, or on your mobile phone.

How to Link Your Twitter and Whrrl Accounts

To get started, log in at www.whrrl.com, go to the twitter tab of your Whrrl settings, and link your account. It's that simple.

Want to stay up-to-date with Whrrl? You can subscribe to this blog and follow @Whrrl on Twitter.

New Feature: Mark Places Closed

Danielle Morrill — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:10:49 +0000

Whrrl contains more than 6.5 million points of interest in the US, but how many of these businesses are going to close in the next year? Now, in addition to being able to drag-and-drop places on the map, Whrrl users can mark places as having closed permanently, without having to contact us through our feedback box.

I captured Frank (the software engineer who brought this feature to life) in his natural habitat, and put together a quick demo of how marking places closed in Whrrl works. Enjoy!

Video: Meet Frank & Mark Places Closed in Whrrl

Check out the Whrrl YouTube Channel for more videos!

How Mark Places Closed

On the detail page for a place, there is a button at the bottom of the left hand column. When you mark a place closed the button will change to orange, and the business name will display [Closed] next to it. If you made a mistake, you can interact with the orange button and mark the place open again:

Talking About Whrrl - Answering Your Questions #2

Danielle Morrill — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 06:15:48 +0000

If you were following this blog back July, you might have seen the first Talking About Whrrl post, with the folks from Mashable, at SummerMash Seattle.

On Wednesday, we talked with Justin from TalkingHeadTV about more hot conversation items that are being asked about Whrrl, and location aware iPhone applications and social networks in general. Topics were broad ranging, covering what it was like to receive support from the iFund, the release of our iPhone app, personal privacy, community building, user expectations, and more.

Office Oddities at Pelago

Danielle Morrill — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:48:44 +0000

I was walking around Pelago and noticed that we have a lot of weird and interesting "stuff" accumulating in our offices since we moved here in January. I hope you'll find this as entertaining as I do...

Whrrl Recognized by Forum Nokia Innovation Series

Danielle Morrill — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:34:46 +0000

Today Nokia recognized Pelago as a 2008 Forum Nokia Innovation Series Developer, for our Whrrl application. We're proud to have been selected along with these other innovative applications from around the world: Plusmo, Qik, WebMessenger Mobile, Backup-Pal, Hava Mobile Player, JoikuSpot, and UbiSafe.

Nokia is also featuring a video demo of how to use Whrrl on the 6085 Nokia handset. Go Darren!

Check out Forum Nokia. Click here.

Been Here? Like it, or not? - Whrrl is on Facebook!

Danielle Morrill — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:18:57 +0000

Sharing your opinon with the people you know, about the places you go, has just gotten even easier!

I know some of you have already discovered this, what with last week's press release and all, but we're excited to tell you that we've launched a new Facebook application that's powered by Whrrl, called Been Here? Like it or not? This application is a game that makes it fun and easy to share where you've been, who you were with, and what you thought of the places you visited. Have fun, and let us know what you think!

I've made a video showing how it works. Thanks again to my little sister, Meg, for the original music.

Did you know Whrrl now has an official YouTube channel? If you enjoyed this video, and would like to see more like it, check out our channel and subscribe to get updates whenever a new video is released. Thanks for watching!

iPhone Update: Improved Search Using Whrrl

Danielle Morrill — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:23:19 +0000

We received some very helpful feedback earlier this week letting us know that people were having trouble searching for places in the Whrrl iPhone app. Sometimes places were missing from the map on the iPhone, even though they could be found using the Whrrl website. I promised I'd blog about it once it was fixed, so here it is!

Last night, we pushed out a server-side change that will improve search relevance. For this kind of change you won’t need to download any updates from the App Store, the change will just work, and has already taken effect.

A Little Whrrl Home Video

I've made a really quick video with my 10.1 mega pixel Casio camera (so please excuse the blurry start) to show you how this works. Thanks to Meg (my little sis) for the original music track.

So What Exactly Changed?

The search radius from where your map is centered has been extended, and is now two miles.

When searching for places that you think might be further than two miles from where your map is currently centered (across town, or maybe in another city), you'll get the best results by using the Move Map To text box that drops down when you tap the compass icon in the upper left. From here, you can type in an intersection, city name, or zip code that is closer to the place you're searching for. This is also useful for those times when your phone doesn't find your location.

I'll be at iPhoneDevCamp tomorrow and probably will be demoing Whrrl, if my phone battery doesn't die in 3 hours as John Cook mentioned. If you're going to be there too be sure to say hi!

Get Satisfaction with Whrrl Customer Service

Danielle Morrill — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:20:27 +0000

Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen an increase in the number of messages containing questions, feedback, and occasionally a pat on the back (thank you!!). This week, we’ve started actively using Get Satisfaction to take the conversation beyond email, and reach more of our users.

Get Satisfaction is a tool that makes it easy for us to have a public conversation with people who have questions about Whrrl. It also makes it easy to find topics that are currently active, to save you the trouble of documenting a problem we’re already working on fixing.

If you’ve contacted us before, you’ve probably received an email from Joni. She didn’t really want her picture on the blog, so I made this drawing of her this morning (before I had any coffee!). I’m particularly proud of the side-swept bangs, which are pretty accurate.

Joni will still be sending emails, but she will also be available on Get Satisfaction, along with help from Tyler. I was going to make a picture of Tyler… but I just can’t get his hair quite right.

Ways to Contact Customer Service

We can be reached at:

feedback@whrrl.com
help@whrrl.com
customerservice@whrrl.com
Through the feedback box on the Whrrl website, click the feedback link in the upper right corner.

Thanks to all of you who are telling us what you think, how you use Whrrl, and what you’d like to see in the future. Our goal is to learn what works, and what doesn’t, because it helps us make Whrrl a better experience for you. So keep the comments coming by whatever means you prefer; we look forward to talking with you!