Brightkite And Twitter Should Totally Hook Up
Brightkite allows you to share where you are, at any given moment, through the Web or SMS. Like Twitter, you can also post a note sharing what you’re currently doing. Unlike Twitter, your friends will be able to see where you are when you’re doing these very important things. Besides just posting your location and notes, you can also post photos, see other Brightkite users around you, and you can update to Twitter at the same time. All of this can be done from the Web or from your mobile phone. You can customize your privacy settings so you’ll only receive posts and “check ins” (where you are) from your friends or, more importantly, trusted friends. Trusted friends is a feature I think Twitter should add because it allows you to let certain people see certain information. For example, if I wanted to only let my close friends know where I was going to get drinks after work without having to send them all a direct message. All around, I’m really loving Brightkite.
I will say that while Brightkite is nice to look at, it’s a little cluttered for my taste right now. There is a lot going on and it’s going on all over the place. Also, giving people a way to “check in” to a location right from the main page would be nice. As it is, you need to either go to your saved locations and select check in or search for a location and then check in. Since a main focus of the site is checking in, I think that button should be more prominent. Giving people a way to check out of a location would be nice as well (what if they leave a bar and don’t want to check in when they get to the next one?). It is in private beta so I’m more than willing to see where Brightkite goes. Here’s my screencast tour of Brightkite:
Click Here To Watch The Screencast 5m8s
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