Social navigation from iPhone: the case of Zhiing
“Where’s that restaurant? Can you just zhiing me its location?”…“I’m here, let me send you my zhiing.”
Zhiing is a device-independent messaging service with a dynamic map. This app saves you the hazard of speaking the direction to your friend. And you know how difficult it is to give direction to someone, especially when you are also new to a particular place.
The way Zhhing works is simple. It uses Location Based Service.
Being device independent, Zhiing also lets you contact with non iPhoners.
Special features:
1. It provides three connective features -People to people, People to places and People to Services.
2. It does not have a static URL.
3. You do not need to log into any Social Networking site. The developers stress on this by locating this app under the Navigation Category instead of in the Social Networking. The app is about Social Navigation.
And all that done as easily as with a single tap. That is where the interface comes in.
Rating for the concept: 4
Interface: The interface of Zhiing is very neat. It is really easy to use it. And really fast. The only thing I felt is that, it could have done well with a slightly bit more intense look.
The Zhiing interface allows ease of use. All you need to do is to install the zhiing and download Firefox or IE add-on at zhhing.com. Put your mobile number when the app opens. An SMS text arrives after that which opens a navigation software and inserts geo-coded location data, allowing the users to easily navigate to the place or people they are trying to locate. Now start sending and receiving the zhhings –i.e. text messages with a dynamic map and turn-by-turn driving direction to the user’s current location.
Rating for the interface: 3.5
The Zhiing service is so far not available outside the United States. However, the Zhiing developers are hopeful that it will catch up with the rest of the world:
“We anticipate that the word zhiing will become synonymous with connecting people and places.”
That may take a little time to come. But still it is a very useful app for social navigation and it is free.
- App Name:zhiing -Social Navigation
- Price:Free
- App Category:Navigation
- Ratings:
- Developer: ZOS Communications LLC
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Comments
I downloaded the app last week on my iphone and it seems to be working fine. I also have been using the Brightkite iphone app and while it’s interesting it has a few too many moving parts to be useful on a daily basis. As a straight location sharing tool this seems to be the best offering right now (in fact the only option that I know of). You can send turn by turn directions through the built in Google Maps feature on the iphone but you have to plug in start and end locations. The cool thing about Zhiing is start and end are entered for you based on GPS location. So you can SMS recipient an interactive map to you via SMS without even knowing where they are. Cool idea.