We are launching Aloqa’s beta app for Android today at MobileBeat 2009. In this post, I’d like to tell you not just about the Aloqa application but a little more of our vision and the role we believe we can play in the transformation of mobile phones into vastly more useful devices than they are today. We’d love for you to try the app (you can download it in the US and in Germany from the Android Marketplace for a limited time) and give us your feedback as comments on the Marketplace, this blog, or on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aloqahq.
With Aloqa, we believe we are striking at the core of three things that are fundamentally wrong with the ecosystem of mobile search and discovery apps today:
1. Mobile phones shouldn’t have to be used as browsers: A phone is an interrupt based device that is intended to alert you – it rings when someone calls or buzzes when an SMS comes in. In the same way, it should “proactively notify” you of content, people, places in your surroundings that would add value to your everyday life. You should be able to use your phone as a phone – a device that alerts you, as obtrusively or unobtrusively as you’d like, of opportunities to socialize, play, work, shop, watch a show, or just grab a coffee.
2. Location is only one part of a user’s current “context”: “LBS” has become a dirty word for our generation of mobile users for a good reason – historically, “location” has been used a little too simplistically by most mobile apps. The example people give of the holy grail of LBS is always the same – “You are walking by a Starbucks, and you get a coupon sent to your phone”. Well from what we know, Starbucks doesn’t even have coupons – the occasional unsatisfied customer may get a free drink voucher from the barista to use next time. And even if they did have coupons, if all I got all day from location based apps is marketing material of various kinds, of course I would hate “LBS” too.
Here is what we believe: Location is one very important component, but only one component of a user’s context. Who the user is, what they like, the time of day, their social graph – these are all important inputs to context as well. The phone has the advantage of always being with you – it knows your location, it can be trained to know who you are and what you like, including social relationships you enjoy and therefore a perfect device for you to get “Context Based Services”. And in some contexts, those coupons we talked about do make sense – like if you want to shop or are looking for a cheap place to eat.
3. Point applications are good but it’s getting to be death by a 1000 apps: Restaurants, toilets, bars, music, events, even friend finders – are all examples of content users should always just have available at their fingertips and at once, and without having to launch individual applications and type into them. Finding friends in the context of doing something with them is far more valuable than just “where are you?”. Aloqa’s platform enables us to create a container for push based notifications that any publisher can use – using our REST API, for example a travel site can easily create a “channel” that notifies users of location-relevant content when it is relevant to them. Just as easily, any user or publisher can create a channel be it for biking trails, or popular bars where Pittsburgh Steelers fans congregate, whatever be the context-relevant content they would like to share.
So for a quick description of what we have created with Aloqa: A mobile service that proactively notifies you of interesting places, events, and Facebook friends near you. Instead of having to search, you can just look at your phone and see your favorite hotspots, friends, events of interest, and recommended bargains close by. You can customize Aloqa by deciding which “channels” you want from our “Channel Store” and what level of “alerts” you want each channel to be set to. The basic idea is simple: your phone should recommend people, places, events and opportunities you might find interesting and alert you of opportunities of interest around you.
We see a world where all the world’s location relevant content and services can come together into an aggregated “context based inbox” like Aloqa.
If you have an Android phone, do try Aloqa through the Marketplace and let us know your feedback. Today is an exciting day for us and we appreciate your taking the time and interest to visit us.
Sanjeev