The co-founder of photo-sharing site Flickr today unveiled Findery for iPhone, a free app that posts tens of thousands of notes on historical events globally, based on precise locations. Fake describes the app as, "If these walls could talk."
The so-called participatory app acts as a sort of personal tour guide. As you roam a city, you can view significant events on the streets you walk. For instance, a parade celebrating the end of World War I in 1918 took place on Market Street, just around the corner from USA TODAY's bureau here.
"The app offers a rich experience no matter where you are," says Fake, who helped start Flickr in 2002 before selling it to Yahoo in 2005 for reportedly $35 million.
In 2009, she co-founded Hunch, a "taste graph of the Internet," as she once called it, with entrepreneur Chris Dixon. It was sold to eBay for $80 million in late 2011.
Findery relies on contributors to "leave notes," or remembrances about events that occurred throughout a city, Fake says. It could be a major punk rock event in St. Louis, or the birthplace of the poem "Howl," by Allen Ginsberg, in San Francisco.
The notes are usually longer than tweets and shorter than blog items — about 100 words, and often accompanied by a photo of the author.
One cool feature on the app: A list of the best tacos and taco joints in the USA.
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