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.

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You can subscribe to this blog and follow @Whrrl on Twitter.

The newest release of Whrrl leverages what people are saying and where they’re going, making it even easier to discover interesting places nearby.

Web Browser

When you view the detail page for a place you will see at a glance who has been there, what they thought, and who wants to go in the future.

Discover places to go to dinner before the theater, or maybe after work for happy hour. You can see the places people most frequently visited prior to, and following, the place you’re looking at in Whrrl.

What if the place you wanted to go happens to be closed? Whrrl will suggest other similar places nearby.

Recommendations in the iPhone App

In the List view, you will see places with a star if they are recommended for you, as well as a brief explanation of why they were chosen.

Hi! I’ve been following the emails and comments you’ve been sending to us about Whrrl, so I figured I’d jump in and answer some of the most frequently asked questions we have been receiving recently. For a more in depth look at frequently asked questions about Whrrl, check out this interview from Mashable’s SummerMash Seattle last weekend:

30 Seconds… GO!!

Whrrl leverages your social network and mobile location awareness to enable personalized discovery for the real world. Whrrl shows you not just where your friends are right now and what they’re doing, but also where they have been. By highlighting the places, events, and people most interesting to you, you can have experiences you might otherwise have missed out on. Whrrl is a tool that goes beyond social networking and friend tracking, by harnessing the experiences and opinions of the people you know best, and applying a powerful recommendations algorithm.

What Can I Discover With Whrrl?

Whrrl provides personalized answers to questions like “where should we go for coffee after the movie?” or “what upcoming shows are in my neighborhood with bands that my friends like, too?”. Discoveries can happen based on where your friends are, and what they’re doing right now (“Hey, Mike is at a place called Collins Pub – let me check it out”). Discovery can also be a result of interests friends have expressed for the future (“Casey and Becca both want to go to that new restaurant called Juno, maybe we can plan a girls night out”).

Does Whrrl Update My Location Automatically?

No, currently Whrrl will only update and share your location upon request. In order to show you a local map, the iPhone application will attempt to locate you when you launch Whrrl. The 3G iPhone uses GPS, and the version 1 iPhone uses cell tower and wifi triangulation.

Location updates are only broadcast to people in your People Who Can See My Location list, which you control at all times. When you indicate “I’m Here” at a specific place, using one of the incarnations of Whrrl (website, SMS, J2ME application, iPhone application), Whrrl will notify the people on this list of your location, and you will appear on their map in Whrrl. Currently, your shared location is only updated when you press “I’m Here”, but we’re working hard to make it even easier to share your location with the people you choose.

Is Whrrl Exclusive to the iPhone?

Nope, Whrrl is available in the Apple app store for the iPhone, and also in these other forms:

• via your web browser at http://www.whrrl.com
• via SMS, our short code is 94775 (WHRRL)
• as a J2ME application on the following phones (more coming soon!):
  • BlackBerry 8830
  • BlackBerry Curve
  • BlackBerry Pearl
  • Motorola V3m
  • Motorola V3xx
  • Motorola V9
  • Motorola V9m
  • Nokia 6085
  • Nokia N95
  • Samsung M610
  • Samsung SPH-A920
  • Samsung SPH-M510
  • Samsung SPH-M520

Have More Questions?

Email us at feedback@whrrl.com, we read and respond to every email we get.

From Blake Scholl, Director of Product Development-

As you know, we’re continuously tweaking and improving Whrrl. I’m especially excited about our latest update – the most significant in Whrrld history. We’ve got a totally new mobile download that works on more phones and is faster and easier than ever… but that’s a topic for another post. Today, I want to share some of what’s new on whrrl.com including a revolutionary new way to explore the real world with the help of your friends.

Whrrl is all about getting more out of your real-world life, discovering new places to go and things to do by seeing what your friends are up to. We’ve made it even easier to uncover and share awesomeness in your city without ever typing a keyword. I’d like to show you how this works.

When you’re zoomed out, Whrrl colors your map according to your friends’ opinions so it’s easy to tell where the good stuff is at a glance.

With a flick of the scrollwheel, you zoom in and see more: are the places people you know love and are the places they’ve been. It’s fun and easy to cruise around the map and bump into cool stuff. Like eating at places with great water views? Cruise along the coastline and checkout the places your friends love. Of course, the more you and your friends use Whrrl, the better this works.

Even though I’ve lived in Seattle for almost a decade, I’m shocked by how many gems I can uncover just by browsing the map. Give it a try – when you find something cool, click “I want to go” to share your discovery and remember it for later. Come across something you already know? Mark it as “been there” and rate it. You’ll light up your friends’ maps (and their lives!) with your discovery.

To get back to your discoveries, go to “What’s on my map” and pick “I want to go” from “show only.” It works like magic: other places vanish leaving only the places you want to go on your map and list.

By the way, many of you have asked for even bigger maps. Now you can hide the left side of Whrrl by clicking the “arrow” control between the content page and the map.

Whrrl puts literally millions of places on your map. You can explore every single one just by hovering over whatever looks interesting. Want something more specific? “What’s on my map” gives you complete control over which places and events appear on your map. You can filter by dozens of factual attributes (everything from ‘open now’ to ’serves beer’), your friends’ activity (for instance, visited by a particular friend), and even by your own history (where you’ve visited and where you want to). Just open up “show only” and pick the filters you want. Your map and list update right away, and you can add/remove filters in any order you want. Family-friendly Mexican places rated highly by your friend Bob? Whrrl can find them. Sushi restaurants with a happy hour right now? As I write this, there are 9 in Seattle-including 2 recommended by my friends.

Without Whrrl, your friends’ collective knowledge is locked up in their minds. With Whrrl, you can tap into your friends’ experiences anytime, wherever you are. Combining your friends’ wisdom with Whrrl’s detailed database of places and events makes it easy to discover new favorites and be smarter when you go out.

We love all the new experiences we’ve been able to have, thanks to Whrrl. We’d love to hear what you think. Write us at feedback@whrrl.com. Please share your stories about your discoveries with Whrrl – we collect these, and from time to time we’ll post our favorites here.

Whrrl is about finding new favorite places, spending time with friends, and sharing your knowledge so others can make well informed decisions before they try a new place. With that in mind, we thought we’d share one of our favorite places with you, the Stumbling Goat Bistro (http://www.stumblinggoatbistro.com). Read the review below or on our website.