Zhiing is a new way to connect, we all need that.
Hey, look, I'm writing about what I actually do around here all day! So, I'm typically a bandwagoner and a little nerdy for new releases of anything social (form an orderly queue ladies). I am personally fascinated with Geo-based applications that connect people, businesses, etc, and the possibilities they present are endless, IMHO. The new breed of mobile apps are popping up with great regularity but one we recently had the opportunity to be involved with at the Alpha phase is a new app called Zhiing.
With Zhiing you have the ability to communicate your location to anyone with a mobile phone. As you say so what, in that same message you are providing turn-by-turn directions to where you are (see how it works). You are also able to broadcast your location to a group of people...something you cant do with other Apps. Surely there is Brightkite, Loopt, WhosHere, Plazes, to an extent, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo, etc, etc. but all require the recipient to ALSO HAVE THE APP or be "in da club". Zhiing doesn't require this. Zhiing also works as a Firefox plugin, so you can Zhiing folks from your desktop as well. Here's a little video on how it works...
They have thought through a lot in this initial release. I'm going to play with the public version and see what i think, utilizing it with my friends and family. We have our PR and Project teams on it as well. Will be interesting to see how we find uses for it.
There are fully functional apps for iPhone, and Blackberry available for download now. This just released TODAY so in the App store you will need to search for Zhiing to find it until the index picks up. You can learn more about the uses of the product on their website or their blog.
This is a public service announcement and I get NOTHING for the success or failure of this app. I am pimping it because I had the opportunity to provide my input on the development (after all I am a Thetan Level 10 Social Media App Sherpa). I have always enjoyed playing with the various location based, friend-to-friend apps that are out there, but they've all left this reviewer limp. So, I hope that our influence on the development and our evangelism leads to a fast moving app. Best of luck to the guys at Zos.
Send your feedback and comments here, oh loyal readers, or in the iTunes App Store, or wherever you like. Or if you dont want to try it, then you, sir, are no friend of mine.
Rays in 4.
Bryan
