Location data has never been more pervasive. Tools for development, sharing and distribution have never been so accessible. So given that how do you take the abundance of location data and turn it into relevant, valuable local content? That's what we're starting to answer. 

Turning Location Data Into Local Content

Most compelling experience ...
1.87% of our unique users contribute every month which leaves just over 98% who are browsing/discovering. Those browsers can now see a passive slideshow of what's nearby, look at related and nearby videos, people and maps.

Content people care about...

What makes local content interesting? Well, definitely food/drink, shopping and standard city guide stuff BUT based on watching our users for 2 years we also saw that it was local history, parks, architecture, green, activism, punk, kid-friendly and more- so that's how we've categorized and are building out our content.

Smooth interface that allows people to discover as much as to create...

Its the little things... simplest zoom/nav tools, extended publishing options, bread crumb trails, more stats and feedback

Hub and spoke...
This is the local discovery mechanism in its broadest form but we continue our distributed strategy with vertical channels around our core use cases; travel, social networking, kid-friendly places, sailing, birding, fishing etc.

Mobile!

This local discovery portal is the basis for our mobile efforts- adding location awareness has made this much more interesting. We have an iPhone team working toward the June launch- its already stellar.

All of Platial's existing and in progress efforts revolve around improving the experience and relevance of location data and move toward distributed local content- Imagine 100 Million city guides filtered by infinite perspectives.... We do!

About Platial
Platial was founded in September 2005 and since, has built a solid user base, a powerful unique technology for collecting, ranking and serving geographic information, The Geographic Relevance Platform (GRP), which is available to our users in mapmaking and through local search & discovery. In addition to the GRP, Platial’s platform incorporates technology to work on most map platforms, collect stories, images video, publish. The database is rich in data and incorporates the ability to attached custom vocabularies to specific communities such as wave swell for surfers etc. At the end of 2007 we bought Frappr, a very popular, narrow application for allowing people to communicate on a map.

At a very high level, Platial is The People’s Guide to Who and What’s Nearby… anywhere in the world, collecting information about people, places and perspectives. Specifically, we’re creating the largest distributed (web and mobile), local media company offering unique local insights for our communities/users Local discovery remains fragmented and confusing for people; our network of 200,000 sites and blogs, technology infrastructure and 150 million data points position us to lead to a solution- the transition from location data to local content; Imagine 100 Million city guides filtered by infinite perspectives. Platial investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Ram Shriram, KeyNote Ventures.