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Show HN: Mapname – anonymous social network for organising points of interest (map.name)

52 points by bnd ↗ HN
Hello HN,

with mapname you can create a unique name for any particular point of interest as in prefix(id).group(optional).suffix.

Once a mapname created then this can be used as an address, discovered and socialised.

Mapname is free and has no advertisements. At onboarding pick a unique prefix. That is all about onboarding.

Users can also organise collection of places with just two words, for example coffee shops i like at NY is abc.1 or I have visited Melbourne last year where you can see at abc.melbourne

Mapname designed as an anonymous Social Network where users particular perspective engage with like minded users, instead of their persona. Personal Images are not promoted.

Here is one minute user guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G42THV9YcY4

More mapnames are on twitter https://twitter.com/NameYourWay

You can consider this as "Pinterest of coordinates"

Another way to think this; mapname(s) to coordinate(s) is similar to domain name(s) to ip address(es).

Instead of hard to remember IP Addresses we use domain names. Similarly instead of coordinates or map list urls a mapname can be in use.

Between mapname and a coordinate 1->1 or N->1 or 1->N relationships are possible.

Whenever a mapname visited, the most relevant what3words attached to it so that you may communicate whichever is more relevant.

Mapname is trying to reduce friction while describing addresses and organising points of interests, for transportation, navigation, directions uses integrations.

A mapname can be viewed in your favourite maps (Google Maps, Apple Maps, Yandex Maps, Bing Maps, Baidu Maps) or with what3words, citymapper, waze.

it is available on android & ios, feel free play with it, any feedback or question is appreciated.

What other location/navigation/map integration would you benefit?

27 comments

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Freak_NL
> A mapname can be viewed in your favorite maps (Google Maps, Apple Maps, Yandex Maps, Bing Maps, Baidu Maps) […]

No it can't. OpenStreetMap is missing.

I can't find a link to actually view this product, except for the app store links. Is the website broken?

bnd
this product is available on app store and google play, web interface is not available yet

Good point, OSM will be added

lisasays
Agreed - a web interface would be very significant boost.

The idea certainly has potential, but first one needs to see the aggregate results (for which phones are way too tiny, and require on to be ... on one's phone)

bnd
at first attempt, mapname tries to alias coordinate, so that you can talk about the place without sharing a url. you may say I am at lisasays.1 or last year I have visited lisasays.a or if you are recording a video you may annotate them like subtitles so that your viewers can see what is happening at which location without you providing any map urls

apart from that core feature, I agree that many options can be provided for personalised browsing of this data depending on the client type

janalsncm
I wish the world map would show me some points of interest. Otherwise, cool concept.
bnd
podium is the place for discovering random points of interests, at ios it is segregated into types nature, art, life, food..

at world map you can either find the points of interests you saved or others saved publicly

search a user ex: mia then on its profile you can click Map View

yes, it is good idea to add suggestions to world map too

tlhunter
I tried doing something similar with my app, Map Buddy. The current iteration requires user accounts to create content but the previous iteration, Whisper, was entirely anonymous.
bnd
apart from being anonymous, one of the core idea in mapname is to convert anywhere into an address of the form prefix(id).group(optional).suffix

mapname needs an account to associate the prefix with the account id, but does not store or use any other user info. (such as email, name or other)

Only if user signs up with google account, profile photo of the logged in account is in use, that may be replaced with a random or optional avatar.

sergiomattei
I think this is awesome! App is hard to use though.
bnd
yes, UX must be improved a lot. Many finds it quite difficult to use
lazyasciiart
How is this usefully different to What Three Words?
bnd
1. User assigns name under the onboarded prefix instead of automatic creation, for example let say, your id is lazyasciiart then you may share your id as the names you bookmark publicly

2. You may use groups as you create mapnames, for example coffee as a group then you may say lazyasciiart.coffee then it will map to several locations

3. Your experience is socialised so that you may follow relevant content, overtime you build what you interested and where you interested

4. As you are creating content such as movie or documentary you may annotate it with the mapname prefix then you can point out all the relevant locations within the app without referring to it

for the next few features will focus on adding more organisation features such as boards, guides, todo lists where collection of mapnames presented and also once you create a mapname relevant apps will be available for navigation

you can also consider this as a nickname for your what3words instead of saying apple.art.love you may say lazyasciiart.1, Which one would you like to communicate is up to you as both available once you view a mapname

as a shorter answer you may think mapname as an anonymous social network for organising points of interest

dr_kiszonka
From your comments and how high it is on your website, it seems "prefix.group(optional).suffix" is a very important feature. Building on your above comment, perhaps it would be a good idea to explain how it works and why it is so important on your website?
bnd
yes, thank you for the suggestion. How a mapname constructured can be explained better.

User gets a handle/prefix during the onboarding and this is all about the onboarding. After that whenever somewhere is mapnamed, mapname starts with a prefix. if a user wants to add it to a group, then mapname becomes prefix.group.suffix otherwise it is prefix.suffix

Example: Let say prefix that you take during the onboarding is drkiszonka then you would like to mapname your favourite restaurant x then the restaurants mapname becomes drkiszonka.x instead of describing where it is you only say my favourite restaurant is at drkiszonka.x When someone search drkiszonka.x then they can find the exact coordinate of drkiszonka.x and they can able to open it in Google Maps, Apple Maps, Yandex Maps, Bing Maps, Baidu Maps or with what3words, citymapper, waze

if you like to group your restaurant under a group id, while mapnaming it with x you choose a group. Let say group that you choose is Madrid then the restaurant mapname becomes drkiszonka.madrid.x if you like to refer all the mapnames under this group then you say drkiszonka.madrid

pimlottc
I still don’t really understand what this is. An anonymous shared Pinterest board tied to a location?
bnd
imagine you create a label for a location in Google Maps but it works in Apple Maps too (as well as other Maps), label can be used as an address and collection of them shows a particular perspective of yours.. for example: abc.tapas shows tapas bars you visited in Barcelona, assume abc is your id..

similarity with Pinterest is, user bookmark/collect places with optionally emoji, image and description as they met interesting enough spots

cobertos
I downloaded the Android app but when clicking the privacy policy or terms to read them I'm redirected to the sign-in screen and they don't open.

Also, as a point of perspective, I like using things like this to find new places to visit. I have a big list in Google Maps/OSMAnd of interesting places I've found locally, which aren't the easiest to find considering how rural this area is.

EDIT: Seems hard to find places near me? The world map doesn't show all places, and I can't really search for "nearby" users? I have no interest in looking at a global feed, there's no utility there for me unfortunately

bnd
thank you for reporting this,

yes one of the main intention is to advise less obvious spots based on what you create, like or follow. if you are visiting London, Trip Advisor top 10 can be good enough but less obvious places that locals find interesting may be found at mapname

since such lists can grow too big, mapname will provide options to manage and share, suggest these lists too

bnd
Feed is the option where you get content from other users you follow,

Podium is a collection of regional and global content but since the app recently launched it does not have much content,

ideally you should be getting a combination of global and regional content on the podium segregated by content type (art, food, life .. ) in the android version there is single Podium and also content should be interesting enough and should not contain personal images/selfies to make it up to Podium.

gabea
What is the short version that describes what problem this might solve for a user?
bnd
communicating a location or group of places
toomim
> with mapname you can create a unique name for any particular point of interest as in prefix(id).group(optional).suffix.

Please give an example.

bnd
sgtpepper.norway.torden https://twitter.com/NameYourWay/status/1657721856781066241/p...

sgtpepper.norway.spring sgtpepper.norway.glow https://twitter.com/NameYourWay/status/1657721426013503490

bnd
here user sgtpepper pick a suffix and put it under group norway under the group norway he also create spring and glow too when you search sgtpepper you will reach all of his mapnames and when you search group sgtpepper.norway you will see all the mapnames under the group norway