Flash Mob Planning, AKA Meet-in-the-Middle -> Geolocation Start-up Ideas
A frequent meeting planning tasks involves finding a central meeting place to minimize travel. Instances include:
- Retreat location for business with multiple operating sites
- Vacation destination for family or college buddies
- Super-secret dead drop site selector
- Client / sales rep meeting planner
- Post-apocalyptic “meeting place”
- Periodic entrepreneur meet-up
- Flash mob site selection
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Before you break out your mad coding skills to plan meetings reflected in the above image, try one of the several apps for that, such as…
- meetways.com
- works in 35+ countries
- limited to two addresses
- offers an auto-detect mobile-friendly site
- mezzoman.com
- limited to three addresses
- offers an auto-detect mobile-friendly site
- offers mobile app version of site (iOS & webOS)
- auto-generate directions for three points of origin
- geomidpoint.com
- meet-up center marker can be moved
- provides directions from each point of origin
- sites can be removed by selecting an address in the list box and clicking remove
- sites can be removed by selecting an address in the list box and clicking to / from
- suggestions appear after search terms are entered in text box
- offers explanation of algorithm & shows route center / geo center when two addresses used
- supports unlimited* addresses
- meetinbetween.us
- offers map permalink
- supports multiple addresses
- meet-up center marker can be moved
- sites can be removed by clicking their map marker
- supports user accounts for keeping maps / addresses
- directions appear from each location after site selection is made
- suggestions appear after the category is selected or alternate category is typed in text box
- supports unlimited* addresses
- a.placebetween.us
- offers map permalink
- supports multiple addresses
- meet-up center marker can be moved
- provides directions from each point of origin
- sites can be removed by selecting remove in list
- suggestions appear after search terms are entered in text box
- supports unlimited* addresses
Each of these sites fills a slightly different niche (* sites supporting “unlimited” addresses tested ~7 city addresses, dus):
- Meetways & GeoMidPoint are best for 2-person meet-ups
- Mezzoman is cleanest for 3-person meet-ups
- meetinbetween.us & a.placebetween.us are best for more than three points of origin
- meetinbetween.us currently the best option if consistently planning meetings for same group(s) of people (due to its support for user authentication & address storage)
- a.placebetween.us currently the best option for auto-generating searches via URL construction, e.g., develop a mail merge in MS Word and some nifty filtering / directory generation of your Outlook contact list
Some current technology gaps / market opportunities for these or other meet-in-the-middle meeting planner apps:
- Offer an API – perhaps query rate-limited or point-of-origin count-limited, &/or with other geo-location services
- Offer a URL-based point-of-entry – only a.placebetween.us currently provides URL-level address lookups
- Add RSS feed(s), perhaps of addresses listed on the map - perhaps as KML for viewing in Google Earth
- Integrate with social media channels (esp. if creating a geo-based services platform)
- LinkedIn, Salesforce, etc. for planning your work meetings
- Facebook, Hollrback, etc. for meeting with friends & family
- Twitter, Foursquare, etc. for meeting on the fly, e.g, folks following a hash-tag
- Add more sevices, e.g.,
- add round-robin circuit direction support, à la the traveling salesman problem
- multi-point directions, perhaps w/ site-seeing stops along the way, à la AAA’s TripTik
- more meeting support — mailing link to contacts in meeting, link to airplane flight finder, etc.
Bottom line…existing meet-in-the middle sites, such as a.placebetween.us, fill a useful location-based app niche. With social media integration and more services, a market may exist for a geo-location platform that offers such services via an API &/or plug-ins, e.g., to Salesforce. So there you have it – a free mid-week start-up idea on building a geolocation services platform. Enjoy!
To get started on coding up these & other map services, check out Map Scripting 101
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entry written by Chris Augeri
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