The tech world made its annual pilgrimage to Austin, TX last weekend for South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive, a confab of thousands of technologists, designers, strategists, and developers — it’s basically the Internet’s Republican National Convention.
The SXSW community likes to keep on the lookout for the latest trends, websites and apps. Since Twitter made a splash at the 2007 conference, attendees have looked for “the next Twitter.” In 2009, it was Foursquare, the location-based social network that introduced us to check-ins, badges, and mayors.
According to my spy on the ground in Austin, the two apps vying to be the ‘hottest thing’ out of Austin are Highlight (iOS only) and Glancee (iOS and Android) and are part of a larger trend being dubbed “social data.”
According to Highlight’s website, which wins the Eric Wilson Award for Most Visually Offensive Logo, the app works as follows:
Highlight’s creators embrace the seeming creepiness of their creation, noting:
Similarly, Glancee promises users that it “helps you discover these hidden connections and meet with people important to you.”
As with Twitter, skeptics who discount these apps do so at their own peril. I’ve been using both for a few days now (#earlyadopter) and Highlight has already proved enlightening, alerting me that a fellow Highlighter was nearby and we had two friends in common (according to Facebook) and we both like Bob McDonnell, Christopher Hitchens and the Cato Institute.
I followed the Highlighted person on Twitter and maybe, in the near future, I’ll introduce myself to a fellow Highlighter and discuss our favorite libertarians.
Glancee provides you with a list of users nearby and things you have in common. For example, the nearest user to me, as of this writing, is 0.6 miles away and the app notes that he likes the Arizona Democratic Party and I like Jeff Flake, he likes Debbie Wasserman Schulz and I like Virginia Foxx, and he likes Barney Frank and I like Eric Cantor. The app could fine tune its understanding of “common” interests, but there’s definitely potential.
As with all new apps, there’s the “empty bar problem” to overcome, which means the apps haven’t yet reached their critical mass of users, but in a world where we’re all trying to connect with one another, Highlight and Glancee make it a little bit easier.
