Show HN: LocalGo - bit.ly for addresses | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: LocalGo - bit.ly for addresses

localgo.com

51 pointszach32 comments

This is a really cool idea, Zach. Props for making + launching it.

I can see it's value - I do consulting work (web design / marketing) with small businesses and I often spend too much time getting Google Maps to embed just right into the site. I'll try this out on my next project.

It seems to fit perfectly for Craiglist ads. For anyone wondering, here's what the output on Craigslist looks like: http://ka1.us/ZlzK

# Comments / Suggestions / Thoughts

First off, serious props for launching this. It's a wonderful application and I can't wait to see where it grows to. As far as this feedback goes, I'm not you, so take these ideas with a grain of salt.

Custom URL

It would be neat if I could set a custom URL for a location. Linking to http://lg.cx/YRDYhVuq is fine, but it'd be a lot more user friendly for me in my use case (including a link to my house in a party-invite email) if I could set that as http://lg.cx/kaishouse

Registering / Owning / Locking Locations

Can I lock a location or are they always open to editing by anyone? I'd hesitate to use this for a client's website if someone can go in and change the listing description and name. Not a biggie, but something that might come up for business customers.

Copy to Clipboard

Including a copy to clipboard for the embed codes (pic: http://ka1.us/Lfo5) would be great. I'm not sure if it's a bug on my end, but when I clicked into the embed code boxes, they'd flash for a second like they were being highlighted to copy, but would immediately reset to normal. Nothing was copied to my clipboard.

Copying the Craigslist ad was a bit awkward. Half the time my mouse cursor would end up outside of the box and cmd+a would select the entire page. Adding a 'copy this embed code' button for both boxes would be nifty keen.

Sharing

Minor, but an 'email this' button could be nice. Click the button, enter an email address (or multiples) and an email is sent with the table output of the address.

Maybe have the share menu expanded by default? I'm used to 'share' displaying twitter / facebook widgets, so the link code in there came as a bit of a surprise.

Again, congratulations for making + launching this. I think it's really awesome.

Thank you so much for the feedback, I really appreciate your time. I especially appreciate your perspective with small business clients -- part of our concept is offering low-impact Google Places-type functionality.

Custom URL: Great suggestions. I was just talking Max from Bouncr and he emphasized how much people love namespace.

Right now we de-emphasize login but there is cookie-based ownership, so you can only edit it on the same browser (until you clear your cookies).

I agree the share menu needs work -- it's pretty essential. I really like having the default share stuff expanded. Email seems like a natural. I'm setting up Postmark to send email but we haven't gotten a template together yet. On the other hand, SMS we haven't even considered.

Thanks again for your post!

Zach,

Totally! This is a really cool application and I'm always pumped to offer constructive feedback.

If you ever want to chat, feel free to ping me on skype (kaisdavis) or Google Talk (kai@kaisdavis.com).

Happy building.

My initial reaction was 'why would I do this', but thinking about it a bit more, I think you're on to something interesting.

The challenge that I think you've yet to meet is explaining why it is interesting/special/needed.

Though this may be better than a link dumping the user onto the standard google map page, google maps are so easy to embed into the webpage that the business controls, so I'm not sure you're really solving a problem.

Doesn't mean that you aren't on to something, I just don't think that is the answer to the question. For instance, for many businesses, more than one thing happens at an individual address (office building, shopping mall), so how would you answer that issue.

Also, businesses want to keep the user on their site, not throw the person over to yours.

So, now that you have this bit, what can you do to help businesses put the map on their page? Once they've done that, what other service can you offer them.

I don't know. I like your idea. i think it has merit, I just don't see what the actual benefit will be.

Hey all, my co-founder and I got our first quantum of utility for this project.

The basic idea is a no-registration-or-app-required way to make a link to an address that you can actually customize.

Overall, we'd like to explore the territory between Google Maps and check-in apps. Any thoughts?

Zach, I think it's really cool and definitely has utility/meets some needs.

BTW, if you guys are interested in doing a LocalGo iOS app, I could help out. My email is in my profile.

allow visitors to leave comments (even facebook comments would do)

Shortened links get the lg.cx domain. IMHO, goatse ruined the .cx ccTLD for business use. Besides that, I don't see the benefit of using this service instead of simply using any shortener of my choosing to link to a Google Map (but perhaps I'm not part of the target demographic?).

That's what I used to do but this is more convenient plus there's something nice about creating a content page with notes about linking into a maps application.

And yes, I'm bringing .cx back. Too soon? It was either that or Libya.

There are quite a few .to domains available still. For example, right.to is available and would work for this application (although it's not terribly short). They're $50/yr, but you have to buy 2 years up front. I used it for Yak because it makes sense to yak.to/stanford, yak.to/chicago, etc.

See http://tonic.to

I like this idea. As someone who has built a number of small business websites in the past, I could see using a lg.cx link.

Some comments:

Permanence is always a concern with url shorteners. Especially for small business websites where I'll implement the site (and the associated admin allowing them to customize much of it on their own) and sometimes not touch the code again for years. I don't know what the solution is for this concern but it's worth noting and it's something that business owners ask about when you are using "new" technology.

Don't add comments by default. Yelp already exists and in general comments allow for trolls more often than useful, meaningful information. Meaningful comments generally come from a community. Maybe have a checkbox to allow for disqus comments.

An alternate take on comments... Moderate and scope them. Allow for comments that are actually ABOUT the directions and location. This is probably the ideal solution. But it may also be a lot of (needless) work.

An embeddable widget would be great. Ala google maps. Something that could be embedded with the ability to customize the design minimally. Just enough customization so that it matches the site it's embedded on. When I'm working on a small business website I'm always looking for drop-in reliable widgets that customers are happy with. Ideally the widget would be a drop-in replacement for google maps. But still with all the useful additional links and description found on a lg.cx page. It's an easy sell since it offers more options for the users.

As for customizing the name in the link - that doesn't really matter to me. I can see why it would be cool. But you've already solved the problem - shrinking insanely long google map links and providing a single location with links to multiple map services. I'll likely wrap an lg.cx link with a meaningful description in an <a> tag if it's on a website or in an email. I can see customizing names as useful for "true" bit.ly uses lg.cx though.

Can you give some examples/use cases of how a small business, say an auto garage, would use this?

To me, this is a way better link for local businesses than the usual dumping visitors on a Google Maps page for their address.

They can make their business name prominent, add notes (and a link back to their website), and the content is all controlled by them.

I tried to enter the full address for our office, which includes a suite number, and the address wasn't found. It might be confusing for some people to have to type an address differently than they do everywhere else that they enter it on a regular basis.

"Address 2" doesn't (usually?) matter for driving directions but I can see businesses wanting it to be 100% accurate if they're linking to your page.

This is actually pretty cool. However, I would suggest an option to use a more descriptive, non-shortened URL (something like localgo.com/1600-pennsylvania-ave/). I don't see myself using this on Twitter much, but definitely in emails.

That makes a lot of sense. We have complete-address URLs on our first site, LA Life:

http://lalife.com/address/5314_Blackwelder_St_Los_Angeles_CA...

But the whole address can get unwieldy. Thanks for using LocalGo!

doesn't seem to work for a Canadian address. Is this america-specific? If so, weak.

Otherwise, it seems like a great idea.

It should work worldwide. I've tested 1 Sussex Drive and some other random Canadian addresses and it seems to work.

Email me (zach at localgo.com) the address if you wouldn't mind and I'll check it out.

Didn't work for a US address for me either.

7095 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles CA, 90028

Oh, very interesting. It's getting confused due to the proximity of the Boulevard3 nightclub at the Hollywood Athletic Club. Let me see if I can tweak it for the update I'm pushing this afternoon.

Thanks very much for the bug report!

Okay, it's fixed now. Thanks for the report!

I think i am going to make bit.ly for bit.ly

huh. yeah. not seeing a big need for this in my life.

What have you built recently?

you're right. my opinion of whether i see any value in the app in my life is directly attributable to what i may or may not have built.

thank you.

You missed my point. I meant to imply that I figured you hadn't ever built something and submitted it for approval to a community before. If you had, you'd know that receiving comments like "I see no use for this" in such a blunt manner is discouraging and overall an unhealthy bit of feedback to receive.

Sure, I could be wrong.

[insert comment here about the degrading quality of HN lately]

EDIT: comments like that are also unhelpful.

I didn't say 'I see no use for this'.

I said 'not seeing a big need for this in my life.'

Those are entirely different sentiments. What I said is very specific to ME. to my life.

And I think understanding how many people see a need for a product in their life is important to know. We need to hear that when we are building things rather than just the pleasant loop of 'great idea'.

And btw... I don't think I missed your point. I think it was pretty clear.

It is definitely just as useful to have negative feedback as well as positive. However, your comment could have been a lot more useful had it been more constructive.

For example, just saying that you see no need for it isn't enough to be helpful. You could be an eskimo with no map coverage, in which case of course it's not useful. What would have been useful is explaining WHY it's not useful to you, or more specifically what your current workflow is that this is not better than.

But you're right, no one benefits from a loop of "great idea"... which seems to be the only feedback you get most of the time.

You are very correct...

So in case this is still going... I don't see any great need for this in my life because I don't share addresses in this fashion. I type out the address in an email or give it over the phone or in a text message. 90% of the time, in a text message as it is my primary means of communication with people who I would need to share a physical address with.

Perhaps the most useful comment thus far. Does anyone outside of the SV bubble actually see a need for a url shortener for real world addresses?

Someone, please explain the value proposition for obfusticating an address when every modern browser now includes automatic address recognition that can link to a map without obfusticating this information?

Deleted comment

'Mapifier.com' sure sounds a lot more trustworthy and descriptive, even though it's a bit on the long side for a shortlink.

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