Today we celebrate Ada Lovelace Day 2010 to honor Women in Technology! In the past year we have gone through quite the journey revamping the website, our look & feel, and our iPhone app. It was one of the biggest roller coaster rides we have ever been on and we couldn’t have done it without our two women furiously working day and night to make GeoGraffiti a better service.

Yannell at LACMA

Yannell, the brains behind all the creative design at GeoGraffiti, has been an immense asset to us. She helped out last year so much and did such a great job that we decided to fly her to Los Angeles to lead the entire design effort for the Voice Mark iPhone app this past summer.  She quickly started the design effort to make the Voice Mark app “sexier” as soon as she arrived to work her first day.  Her creative mind led to a really slick looking iPhone app that received positive feedback from several users.  Check out the comments section at the bottom of the Voice Mark App page.  While most of her effort went to the design of the iPhone app, she did spend plenty of time fixing up our identity package (logos, business cards, etc).  That’s just the way she works… if she sees something ugly, she wants to fix it and makes it, in my opinion, pretty damn sexy!  While she has returned to Texas to finish her undergraduate studies in 2010, she continues to consult on all the design work that is required for new features on the GeoGraffiti Voice Mark Map and the Voice Mark iPhone App.  You’d be amazed at what kind of crazy stuff a creative designer and an engineer can come up with together!  One of the best things we love about Yannell is how ruthless she is when it comes to design.  If we cut corners, she basically slaps us on the wrist with a ruler.  I can think of so many times when she stopped work and told us to sit down and told us why what we were doing is wrong and why it will produce and ugly looking graphic, logo, etc.  Thanks to her we now know that a font is actually a typeface and that we should NOT distort types!  We learned just as much from her about design as she did from us about building web apps and iPhone apps.  She continues to excel while still working on GeoGraffiti … she recently won 1st place at an art show at the University of Texas El Paso for her photography exhibits and had some of her work featured in an ad!  Yannell, we thank you for all your hard work and wish you luck as you finish your undergraduate studies in May!

Gisselli modeling

Gisselli, the goddess of data at GeoGraffiti has been helping us out for a few years.  Initially her responsibilities were mainly part-time as a PA, but have since grown to be the gatekeeper of our data.  With the release of the Voice Mark iPhone app, the amount of data we have, has grown to the point where we can’t handle it AND our other responsibilities… so we gave Gisselli the job.  We spent a few days with her this past summer dumping our knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and GeoSEO (Geographic Search Engine Optimization) to let her take control the data.  She scans all our Voice Marks making sure that they are legit and removes anything that might violate our terms of use.  This is the easy part.  One of our main objectives at GeoGraffiti is to let anyone gain a web presence by simply talking into their phone.  We take SEO very seriously.  It’s something we see as very valuable to our users and business users.  What Gisselli does is makes sure all the data for each Voice Mark is accurate.  She checks to make sure the transcriptions are as accurate as possible, and then make sure all geographic data is precise (think latitudes, longitudes, postal codes, phone numbers, area codes, etc).  Once that is all done, she goes through a set of heuristic processes where she applies the SEO knowledge she has gained in order to optimize EVERY Voice Mark so that our users have the benefits of an optimized Voice Mark.  This becomes incredibly powerful for all business users using Voice Marks to advertise their promotions and specials and Voice Marks that deal with information about venues.  Did you know that on her spare time, she blogs about fashion?  Yep… she’s pretty creative when it comes to fashion and she will soon release her very own fashion blog!  She taught us that wearing 2 different types of prints, like zebra and snake, is a fashion faux pas!  So not only has she made our data pretty, but made US pretty!   Gisselli, we thank you for all your hard work keeping all our data legit and valuable and wish you luck as you finish up your sophomore year at Cal State Northridge!

Again, thank you both for all your work!  We ask our readers that you make sure to share this blog post with your friends to make sure the GeoGraffiti Women are recognized for all their hard work in technology!

#ald10, Ada Lovelace, AdaLovelaceDay2010, Voice Mark, Women in Technology

The brand new Voice Mark App is now available on the iTunes App Store! It was previously called GeoGraffiti, but we have since  rebranded it to Voice Mark by GeoGraffiti. It has been a roller coaster ride building this new app for our users because we decided to rebuild it from scratch.  Why did we do this?  We spent many months collecting feedback from users and friends about what the new Voice Mark App should be able to do.  We ended up with a huge list of features that, after careful analysis, indicated that users basically wanted ALL the functionality of the GeoGraffiti Voice Mark Map within the iPhone App.  We were able to build most of the functionality in for this initial 3.0 release.  The features we were not able to complete will be coming to our users in the 3.1 version which is a very short time away from release.

One of the biggest complaints from users and friends was the App’s design.  It just wasn’t “sexy” or “pretty” enough.  How were we going to solve that problem?  Simple!  We decided to hire a very talented summer intern, Yannell Rodriguez, who would lead the graphic design of the new app.  As you will see in the video and screenshots, she did a fantastic job!

So let’s get right to it and start you off with a nice demo video that was produced by our friends at Scraster who also published a nice blog post about the new Voice Mark App.

Get the App Now

Key New Features

• Google Maps Mashup Interface
  • You can now create and browse Voice Marks using the familiar Google Maps interface.
• Facebook Connect Single Signon
  • To customize their accounts, users can now sign in to the Voice Mark App by using their Facebook account.  This eliminates the need to remember yet another username and password.
• Twitter Account Linking for Voice Tweets
  • Link your Twitter account and now every Voice Mark you publish will automatically update your Twitter status with a link to your Voice Mark that your followers can listen to.  It’s essentially a Voice Tweet!
• Email and SMS Notifications
  • You can configure your account to notify you when you have a new Fan/Follower and when someone responds to your Voice Marks.
• Social Sharing and Bookmarking powered by AddThis
  • Sharing Voice Marks has never been easier!  Clicking the “Bookmark and Share” button for a Voice Mark will let you share the Voice Mark using hundreds of social sharing services such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Digg, Delicious, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Yahoo Buzz.  You can also forward Voice Marks to your contacts in your address book via email.
• Create Voice Marks by inbound telephone call or iPhone Microphone
  • Voice Marks can be easily and quicklly created using a standard inbound telephone call (we call you and your phone acts as the microphone).  You can also create Voice Marks using your iPhones built-in microphone in situations where you want to capture something immediately (e.g. breaking news) and can’t wait for a phone call or when the phone lines are busy (e.g. New Year’s Eve).
• Customizable User Profile
  • Create a user profile with a profile pic and other information such as User Name, Birthday, and Location.
• GeoTag Voice Marks to any location
  • You have the option of using the iPhone’s GPS to GeoTag your Voice Mark to the exact spot you are standing at or to a remote location that you designate via Search/Google Maps.
• Search for Voice Marks in any location
  • You have the option of searching for Voice Marks around you using the iPhone’s GPS or Voice Marks in a different location via Search/Google Maps.

Before & After

Old Version 1 & 2:

All New Version 3:

To view more info and screenshots of the new app, visit the product page

What Users are Saying

“The new app is so much sexier!” — EJ Liao

“Voice Marks are truly powerful” — Cordell Kennedy

“Extremely handy & innovative app.  Very user friendly.” — Karina Amezaga

“A quick and easy way to share info on locations I’ve been to” — Ben Graham

“I updated and wow the entire interface is different! Not bad.” — Eva Cheung

“I love hearing real people talking about their favorite restaurants and bars.  They give me a better idea of what a place is all about” — Luis Sotomayor

“Great way to share without typing!” — TJ Thinakaran

“An awesome informative app when on the go and need to know!!!” — RC Villareal

“I love the new design and add ons to this update.  The whole voice networking concept is definitely a great tool for tourists and education.  I like how this app has the yelp-fiend effect except through voice reviews.” — Gisselli

“I love being able to hear the genuine emotion in people’s voices … something I can’t get through reading reviews on my phone.” — Stephanie Kim

So there you have it folks … our brand new Voice Mark app!  We’ve enjoyed building this and look forward to improving it in the coming months.  Please let us know what you think and if you have any suggestions for improvement.  We’d like to thank all our beta testers for the time they spent testing the app and offering suggestions.  We couldn’t have done it without you!  Thank You.

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iphone, iPhone App, iphone voice app, ipod touch, twitter, twitter integration, voice 2.0, voice app, Voice Map, Voice Mark, voice tweet

It’s done…well it is for now. GeoGraffiti’s new Voice Marking map mashup UI. I guess you could say it was a team effort, but really there was only one “man” behind the man who did all the heavy lifting. He was born to code, likes working the vampire schedule, but can occasionally ignore public guidance.

No seriously check out the new UI and features at www.geograffiti.com/map

Some of the most notable new features are:

• Search – We have enabled our Voice Map @ www.geograffiti.com/map with content search.  When a new Voice Mark is published, its title, tags, address information, and category will become searchable within within a few hours.  What does this mean for you?  It’s now easier than ever to find Voice Marks.  You can type in what you are looking for in the WHAT box and, optionally, constrain the search to a specific location by typing the location into the WHERE box.  The better part of this search comes into play within a few days (it could be as short as one day or as long as three).  That is, we index your Voice Mark audio content and it becomes searchable so you are able to search for Voice Marks where a person mentions, for example, “parking” in “Los Angeles,CA” and all Voice Marks related to parking will show up.  It’s not perfect, but it is WAY better than what we had before (nothing) :). 
  
• Social features – You now have the ability to view who your fans are, who you are a fan of, and view user profiles.  This can be done by clicking on the “My Account” tab on our Voice Map.  To view user profiles, you can click on a Voice Mark’s creator link or search for users by clicking on the “Search Users” link on the top right-hand side of the Voice Map page.  You can also upload a profile picture to associate with your profile by clicking on My Account.  We have also enabled a rough version of groups support.  We are still actively working on this feature so any input on what you want “groups” to do will be greatly appreciated.
• Notifications – This feature will allow you to keep up-to-date with the latest buzz.  You can now enable notifications for “users responding to your Voice Marks” and “users becoming your fan”.  To do this, you simply click on the My Account tab and then proceed to the Notifications section.  You can enable two types of notifications:  Email and SMS Text Message.  In order to have a text message sent out to you, make sure you select your Carrier in the My Phones section.  You will now be notified when someone responds to your Voice Mark (good for Voice Marks about help, advice, dating) and when someone becomes your fan.  Some of our users will be happy about the response notifications because they want to use GeoGraffiti Voice Marks to “hook up”.  Hook up?  It seems like plenty of users want to post a Voice Mark that functions like a personal ad (…looking for woman in …. that likes dogs…).  If someone is interested, they can reply and the user will be notified and the two users can take it from there.  Pretty cool, eh?
• A “prettier” look – You may have noticed that our Voice Map and home page have been redesigned.  We wanted to provide you with a better user experience so we redesigned everything… our company logo, the voice map page, color scheme… One of the best parts of the new Voice Map is the resizable map.  That has been a complaint from users from day one.  People with huge monitors or high resolutions were not able to see a bigger map.  This is all taken care of now.  The Voice Map will now stretch to accommodate your entire screen.  If you have any comments or suggestions about the redesigned look, email us using the Contact Page.
• Social Sharing – Every Voice Mark now includes a [better] Sharing feature.  You can retrieve the direct link (just like before), send to a friend’s phone, or share via Email,AIM,etc (provided by AddThis).  Our Send2Phone feature allows you to send a Voice Mark to your friends via telephone.  You type in their number and click Send.  Your friend will get a phone call (your number as the caller ID) and GeoGraffiti will say “GeoGraffiti will now play that Voice Mark that was sent to your by your friend” and then play the Voice Mark on their phone.  There is one catch though… YOU MUST be signed in and have a verified phone number.  This is to comply with the law and to prevent anyone from sending out Voice Marks as spam to annoy other users (remember YOUR phone number will appear as the caller ID on the other person’s phone).  The other sharing feature is provided by AddThis.  This will allow you to share a Voice Mark via Email, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and a whole lot of other services you currently use.  To try this out, just click on the “Share via Email” link on any Voice Mark on our Voice Map.

• Better URLs – Aside from this being a no-brainer must-have feature, this was inspired by a friend of mine that left a Voice Mark from his iPhone for a waitress at a restaurant.  But how would that waitress listen to the Voice Mark?  Prior to this release, you’d have to link to a Voice Mark like this http://www.geograffiti.com/gu/SearchMap.html?vmid=1. YUK!  That won’t help my friend at all because the link doesn’t even fit on a napkin!  Instead, you can now link to our Voice Marks like this:http://www.geograffiti.com/X or http://www.geograffiti.com/voicemarks/X where X is the Voice Mark’s ID.  For example,   http://www.geograffiti.com/2708 or http://www.geograffiti.com/voicemarks/3114What’s the difference?  Not much.  We provide the former style for scenarios like “I want to leave a Voice Mark for a guy or girl at a bar”  The latter style is what you should use when linking from a blog, website, etc.

GeoGraffiti is platform to publish a voice message and geotag the message to a location.  It is not a private voice mail service.  Rather, every Voice Mark message is made available to the public and accessible from anybody’s mobile phone (although the GeoGraffiti iPhone3G and G1 apps make geotagging easiest).  Everybody has local knowledge, opinions, advice and warnings that the rest of us can benefit from. It’s wisdom of crowds intelligence.

GeoGraffiti offers a public voice information exchange that all generations (Gen-Y to Boomers) can relate to and use because it just requires phone, an opinion and a voice message.  Our voice2.0 map mashup website interface is most convenient for setting notification preferences, joining social groups around a topic, and searching or filtering for specific content.  The phone interface (either from an iPhone, Android G1, or direct call to GeoGraffiti at (213) 221-3802) is available when you are mobile on location.  Why voice?  It’s expressive, personable and authentic.  We have nothing against text messaging and are exploring the idea of partnering with a text messaging platform, but our focus and goal is organizing location-specific voice content.

To hear a little more about the idea and use cases for GeoGraffiti, view a TechZulu interview with Chad taken right after our launch a while back.  Note:  Chad drank enough gin & tonics that our gin bottle was 3/4 empty :) … but somehow still managed to finish the interview.

– Adrian & Chad

geograffiti 2.0, geotagged audio, google maps mashup, local search, voice 2.0, Voice Map, Voice Mark, Voice Marks, voice mashup