Pelago, creators of the mobile social discovery service Whrrl,
announced new mobile support for the BlackBerry Pearl and
Curve. Available for free to millions of BlackBerry users in the U.S.,
Whrrl provides a new mobile medium for discovering and sharing local
information on people, places, events and experiences.
At the nexus of social networking, local discovery and user-generated
content, Whrrl combines mapping and micro-blogging technology into a
unique social discovery experience. Whether accessed via the Web or
mobile device, Whrrl provides users with an entirely new discovery
pathway for finding and sharing local knowledge with friends and
communities.
The release of the BlackBerry mobile application coincides with expanded
events and calendar features on Whrrl, giving users an unprecedented
amount of relevant local information from their mobile device. Whrrl can
be directly downloaded to a user’s BlackBerry
for free at www.whrrl.com.
The Whrrl experience captures a person’s
activities, cataloging an individual history of places visited and
events attended through icons pinpointed on Whrrl’s
built-in mapping application. User ratings and reviews of these places
and events then determine how each is depicted on the Whrrl map,
color-coded as either positive, neutral or negative-charged icons.
“This is great news for BlackBerry users
looking for a new mobile application that combines the mega-trend
attraction of social networking and local discovery into a fun and
useful experience,” said Darren Vengroff, CTO
and co-founder of Pelago. “And for us, it is
just as exciting as the growth rate among BlackBerry users, particularly
within groups outside of the enterprise, which is showing huge growth.”
The user-contributed information that generates the map icons is shared
through a real-time micro-blogging feature called the “Whrrld
Feed.” In addition to sharing ratings and
reviews, users can also instantly update others on their location or
status through their Whrrld Feed by checking in via SMS, the Whrrl
mobile application, or the Whrrl Web site. To ensure privacy, users
themselves set the specific group of friends that can see their actual
real-time location; other users, even other friends, cannot see their
location unless given specific permission by the user.
“Whrrl creates a new way to discover and
navigate a city’s numerous places and events
by leveraging the collective knowledge of friends, acquaintances, and
neighbors against a detailed map of the area,” said Jeff Holden, CEO and co-founder of Pelago. “Now,
anyone with a BlackBerry can tap this tribal knowledge while on the go
to find information like nearby restaurants and which are highly liked
and then share real-time status updates and invite friends to join.”
Currently, the Whrrl service is available nationally in the U.S. with an
information database detailing millions of businesses and events across
the country.
About Pelago
Pelago, Inc. is an early-stage company based in Seattle developing a new
generation of consumer experiences based on breakthrough technology,
including Whrrl, a new mobile and web-based service at the intersection
of social networking and local discovery. Pelago was founded by former
senior executives from Amazon.com and is backed by leading venture
capital firms from the U.S., Europe and India.