Ask HN: PinPoint/Nearby friends question
I'm Ioulian Alexeev, a 25 year old web developer currently living in Belgium.
For the last couple of months I've been busy working on a website that lets you chat with your friends on a map: http://www.pin-point.io (It's actually still in beta, there is some stuff missing, but the core functionality works). It uses your (gps) position to pinpoint you on the map and place messages on your current location, to make it easier to keep track of your friends/collegues if you are going out or planning a trip to somewhere.
This was my sideproject for at least 6 months (learning new stuff, exploring the possibilities of web apps and current state of mobile phones/tablets), I mostly worked in the evenings on it. At the time this was a great idea, I couldn't find any app/site that allows you to do that. Now, Facebook announces "Nearby friends" and it does (almost) the same things my web-app does.
Now I know there are a lot of people here who have experience with startups or such projects. I wanted to ask what to do now, should I just abandon this project or keep working on it and add features to it so it can still be relevant and co-exist with "Nearby friends". Have people experience with such things, when a giant creates (almost) the same idea as their project. I am planning to add more features to it that Facebook won't add in "Nearby Friends" (for now), but maybe it's lost energy from now on.
Greetings from Belgium! Ioulian