Even visit a new city and wonder where you should grab your morning coffee, buy a pair of running shoes, or catch the Canucks game in a sports bar. Of course, if you're staying in a hotel, the front desk or concierege will have a local recommendation for you. But what if you want an unbiased recommendation from informed locals. Enter jWalkr.
Easily recognized as a Web 2.0 start-up thanks to its truncated name and obligatory missing 'e', jWalkr's mission is to promote social shopping through the “mashing up” of Google maps, user generated content, and local search filters on your mobile device. jWalkr Founders Bryan Bradshaw, Peter Bradshaw, and Jamie Au-yeung are betting on a world where jWalkrs access and write consumer reviews on the fly.
Restaurant reviews could be posted on jWalkr before the waiter even brings the bill giving readers immediate access to the latest word from the street. This type of 'social shopping' empowers users to post reviews and recommendations on local products and services - and they can add to their street-cred as an unbiased consumers by adding anecdotes, photos or videos. The most popular reviewers will develop reputations and be able to recommend their favorite destinations to like-minded consumers.
How is jWalkr going to make money? User generated content + search = Google Adsense. These guys are experts at monetizing content and they're counting on new pay-per-action and click-to-call technologies to become more common as technologies converge on mobile devices.
