COMMUNITY FEEDBACK: What would you like to see an a Mahalo Answers iPhone application?
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M$22 Answers
However, there are many location dependent questions and answers that do not require long (or thorough) responses. I can imagine being able to submit a question via an iPhone asking where the best place to eat some particular type of food is in some part of a given city, and within minutes receiving responses from Mahalo Answerers who are local to that area.
It's sort of a taylor-made Urbanspoon including real-time analysis and reviews. In a way, it provides many "normal" people who don't have 20,000 Twitter followers with much of the power that those fortunate enough to have such a following enjoy. At last, we all will be empowered to crowd-source our real-time quest for the best BBQ!
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Ask Questions should work just like the site - type your question, add details, tip if necessary, choose a category, and click OK.
View/Answer Questions should be different - set some criteria (only questions with tips, only unanswered questions, only questions in certain categories, only answered unresolved questions, etc.) and it should show you a list of questions. Or, just shake it (like in the UrbanSpoon commercial) for a random question!
Check Status should show you all of your questions, answers, comments, etc. that have had some related activity (someone answered your question, commented on your comment, etc.)
EDIT: It also needs to work with the iPod Touch (I don't see why it wouldn't, but...)
I'm not an iPhone user, but I think that these suggestions are good.
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M$
Also, I'm serious about the shake-for-a-random-question thing. Just a little extra something to make it special.
I agree - the typing isn't great. Hopefully this will be fixed if/when copy/paste is added in 3.0...
Thanks for the feedback, those are great suggestions! We're thinking the focus of the app will be making it easy to ask questions, that can include photos and location, and to view answers to questions you asked. The typing experience on the iphone isn't great, so we don't expect many people to use the app to answer questions.
1) Be able to take a picture of something, someone or an action and add it to your question. I asked a question a while back and I would have loved to add a picture to my question (i.e. http://www.mahalo.com/answers/home-and-garden/how-would-i-go-about-fixing-this-chair) It took me about 15 minutes (total) to get it all put together. It was a pain.
2) I keep reading that we are not giving well thought out answers, well, on an iPhone and Twitter it is almost impossible to give that kind of answer. It is due to the limited text you can type on twitter and the iPhone keyboard is awful to type on. I suggest using something like Google Voice or some other transcribing software like Dragon. People can easily speak their answer and let Google Voice and/or Dragon do the rest. Since all answers are screened anyway, it would a great solution. IMO
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$Remember those comparison shopping sites? Where you can select a product in a certain category, and you are automatically given details of other products from the same category that are most likely a match...?
Well, I had envisioned a website where you can upload a pic, taken either from the net, or by digicam, or whatever... and get updates on similar products based on visual clues. For example... say, I find a somewhat rare postage stamp on ebay, and want to know if there is anything similar available elsewhere online, and at what price point. That's where this visual search tool comes in.
Google actually did take this technology and try it. The first version of their image search had a “find similar” link next to every image. After it degenerated to the point of near uselessness, they took the “find similar” link away from the image search results. I expected it to turn up again once they got the kinks worked out, but apparently they just decided to stop working on it.
Now, imagine we can scale this to fit as an iPhone app, where all one has to do is click a picture of an object and upload it to Mahalo, and get users to find and send back pics of similar objects at a different location (online or offline) and/or the same product at a different (preferably lower) price than currently shown.
As an example, say I'm vacationing abroad, and find a souvenir I like. While
uploading it via my iPhone, I ask Mahalo users to let me know if it is worth buying for reasons of price and/or availability back home. I can instantly receive responses from Mahalo Answerers telling me the pros and cons of this particular object, and why I should or should not go for it.
I know that the technology for Content-based image retrieval. is in place, but all it means is that instead of entering text to find images, you provide or click on an existing image to find related ones. What I'm talkinng about, is the ability to upload your own pic, and not one that's already in the organisations database.
Obviously, the image comparison then has to be done by humans, and not an algorithm, and thats where Mahalo Answers comes in! The advantage of such an app would be that you can take any kind of picture - from a diustance, at an angle, or even partially hidden, and still get the result, as there are humans searching for a similar object, and they can determine what you've taken a pic of...
That's my idea, and I don't really know of any site out there, that has already got this service. There are services such as BrowseGoods, Visuali.se, and Shopnics, but as mentioned, they work on the database platform, which is non-human, and therefore less accurate. I believe that combining a great service such as Mahalo Answers, and a great device like the iPhone, can make this idea come true.
Who would develop such an app? Maybe you could go with the ViPR visual search platform for the iPhone from Evolution Robotics - they already have the technology in place, although the end result is different. Check out their demo video below.
Do give me feedback on what could be the possible downsides to this idea, and Jason, if you do go for it, remind me to get a copyright :)
Mahalo!
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I was thinking too of something just like this. For instance, I'm about to drop a grand on a tv at Sears, but wonder if I'm getting the best price. I'd pull out my handy dandy iPhone, take a pic of the product and plug in the item number and ask if there's a better price out there. I'd use it.
Thanks bernices! That's very encouraging... I'm pretty sure many people would use it. But I need to hear from Jason and his Mahalo team if its a viable idea. I'm sure there must be some intrinsic flaws in it.
I would love to see a "mobile Mahalo" in which the maker considers all types of web browsing gadgets in its creation. Then it would not seem as if it were available only to a select group of "elite", a sort Mahalo/iPhone clique.
Just my opinion, though . . . and I'm not in a hurry to buy an iPhone just so I can be part of the "in crowd"!
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
1. The ability to follow members, their questions and answers
2. The ability to subscribe to/follow questions/discussions that interest you
3. Functionality that allows you to link member profiles to Apple address book contacts, a la BeejiveIM
4. Interoperability with iPhone- or Google-Maps
5. Functionality that allows you post photos or screen shots from your iPhone with questions, .e.g. "I am playing Spore but don't know how to get past this animal. Help!"
6. Use of GPS functionality - find fellow MAers nearby (not much use for me down here in Indonesia, but hey!)
Good luck!
I'm an iPhone user
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
This is the heart and soul of what mahalo answers is about. All the other goodies would be bonus'
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
In terms of finding places near you, Urbanspoon, AroundMe etc do a pretty good job at it, and I don’t think I will get great answers instantaneously which I already get from these applications. I don’t want to ask a question and keep waiting to get an answer when I am driving around looking for a restaurant - I know you disagree with me--just my opinion.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Windows mobile might be a bust, but I live and die by my blackberry, and using Opera Mini to surf Mahalo Answers is, I'm sorry to say, painful. We could totally use a BB app.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
It would be something like "Send answers to my phone via SMS Text Messaging for (Options here, First answer only, first 4 answers, or the next 15 minutes only)
This way you don't get a message all day for days.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$My opinion.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Never really used an iPhone before, hope this actually applies.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$The answer to this depends. I do not think it will improve the quality of answers. I just do not see people typing on iPhone that well. People can ask questions, view questions, but I would not be excited about seeing some of the answers people put out on their iPhone.
So, here goes with a feature request that's better than iPhone, and I've mentioned it before. I guess I will keep mentioning it again.
Check out the Google Maps API.
http://code.google.com/apis/maps
Someone asked a question the other day, and after answering said they were not from the US. This is an ongoing problem, as you would like to know where this person comes from when answering the question, what time zone they are coming from, and what country, state, or local area they are answering or asking a question from.
Why is this good? You can set a question and answer category on local questions, getting to know people in your local area, and answering questions that may be local. The other day, I asked a question about, "meeting places" in downtown New York City, and the answerer recommended Panera Bread, when there is no Panera Bread in the city. With a local feature you can connect people to their mobile phones and a text message can be sent to their email when a question of local interest is asked.
You can also add heatmaps http://www.heatmapapi.com
and people can find questions on a map. You may even want to use something like Mapeed API to make a mapup.
http://www.mapeed.com/api
You can even do something with the zip codes:
http://www.zipcodesmapped.com
Just imagine if you can facilitate the user and pinpoint a location on the map where you are (ie. I'm at Union Square right now), and then ask a relevant question, get an answer with detailed directions built in just like that!
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Very true. Not saying I'm against the iPhone app, for whoever thought my answer was not helpful, I'm just saying to think creatively. I was talking to a VC the other day, and we were discussing this geography stuff, and this came up. They like to hear these buzzwords geocentric, GPS, green technology, and things moving towards Web 3.0. To the point you don't even have to enter a location, it automatically knows your location etc. Now, how would it know where you are located if you say, "What's the best hotel within two miles of me with rooms for under $200 tonight?" You would need to track down the words, "within 2 miles of me" or somehow artificially know through those words that you mean calculate a distance. If you keep walking, your location is going to change.
Since this is a somewhat big question, I think it would be safe to talk about voice technologies and calling a number as well. Yes, I know there are service that do this, but the benefit of this is you do not need to type anything to ask a question. Just call 800-MAHALO or some number to get in touch with someone. I like 800-Goog411 right now, but this does not serve to answer questions. Once you know the hotel, you can enter a business name, and then it will text you back an answer.
Location-based questions is certainly the a great idea. When asking your question it would be amazing to say "What's the best hotel within two miles of me with rooms available for under $200 tonight?" and then check off "include my location."
Then when we read the question we see that they are standing in Times Square in New York City and can do a local search from there.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$I'm torn about this. While I think it would be great, it is steering towards short questions and answers. Many people come here looking for in-depth answers. I'm not sure if the two will mesh well. The addition email, Twitter and iPhone applications could see a decline in thorough answers.
Growth would seem good for Mahalo. But growing in the wrong direction can topple even the tallest oak.
Is Mahalo about through, almost expert answers or quick, brief ones? Are we a gourmet restaurant or a fast food place?
You might be able to combine the two, but I don't see it happening as things are now. But then, that's my opinion. And if I was the expert, I would be making much more money then I am now.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Darcy,
I like how you are looking at the introduction of this app. I too feel that the quality of answers could take a turn in the wrong direction. Some questions that are answered aren't what they are without the source listed. With no copy/paste, who is going to want to memorize the longest of web addresses to include in their sources?
If asking questions via iPhone was enabled on the app I think it would need its own category to keep it away from the rest.
It seems that most of what people are suggesting, can be done via Safari on the iPhone. Wouldn't a mobile version of Mahalo Answers be better?
I'm thinking the iPhone application would be used primarily for asking questions not answering them. Typing on the iPhone is just horrible.
My hope is that Mahalo is for *both* through and brief answers. If someone wants to know what's the best gourmet restaurant in their area AND ask someone to make a reservation for them, well, that's rad! (although the making reservations park is kind of odd to be honest... i'll have to try that at some point!).
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
How about Symbian? You know the Nokia OS. Is that delegated to the same oblivion as Windows Mobile? I know you have to go where the money is and right now it is the iPhone. I do not have one right now but I am considering one just for the sake of market share and the fact that it is where all the cool and useful apps are going. However if I do not have to get a new phone that is good as well. Currently I have a Nokia N96 and it is a great phone but weak on the app end of the scale so my hopes are dim.
The iPhone and iPod touch are HUGE. Any new iApp that comes out is automatically huge also. (Windows Mobile has lost its buzz.)
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Ding! Ding! Ding! Exactly.
awesome suggestion, and why stop at places to eat. I am constantly wondering about the best place for this or the best solution for that in the city I am in (London) and it would be so good to have an almost instant response from those are in the same place and doing the same things. This would put Mahalo Answers over the top!