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Apple Acquires Social Recommendation Service Spotsetter

Friday June 6, 2014 1:01 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple has acquired Spotsetter, a social search engine designed to offer personalized recommendations on places to visit, reports TechCrunch. The Spotsetter app, which has now been removed from the App Store, offered personal recommendations for "great venues to eat, play, drink, and shop" via existing social networks.

spotsetter
The app integrated with social networks like Facebook to aggregate data on locations recommended by friends, and it included results personalized for an individual's "taste and trust."
Using the app, you could look up any place, category or keyword, then be presented with personalized results, as well as see what your friends had said about the places around you. The app would also highlight which of your friends were experts in a given area, like coffee or shopping or sushi, for example -- and you could tag your friends as experts in order to influence the recommendations. In addition, you could use Spotsetter to discover new places, by browsing the map to see where your friends have been and what they've shared.

The end result was a social search engine built on top of a mapping interface.
Spotsetter announced plans to shut down its app six days ago, but did not give a reason for the removal. Its co-founders, Stephen Tse and Johnny Lee are now listed as Apple employees on LinkedIn, however.
With fondest emotions, I'm announcing that we are closing down Spotsetter app. We still have big dreams for personalized search for places and look forward to seeing great progress in this area. Thank you everyone for your support over the past years!
According to TechCrunch, Apple may be planning to use Spotsetter's technology, which layered social data on a maps interface, to bolster its Maps app with location recommendations. The deal, for an unspecified amount, was said to focus mainly on the technology and the talent of Spotsetter's founders.

[ 45 comments ]


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Mark Booth
61 months ago
As much as I wanted to see Apple kick Google's butt in court, I think this strategy is the better approach. Apple continues to make the moves necessary to make Google redundant under iOS and Mac OS (well, as redundant as they can). I find myself using Google's services less and less and also find myself increasingly happy with Apple's offerings. And that's good in a lot of ways, not the least of which is that I trust Apple with my personal information a LOT more than I trust Google.

Mark
Rating: 8 Votes
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bchery21
61 months ago

For being such a perfectionist his headphones sounded like crap.


wrong article?
Rating: 6 Votes
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Arndroid
61 months ago
Steve Jobs would have never done this. What a waste of money. This is not the apple I grew up with. As a shareholder I am outraged. They should have bought Spotifysetter.

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For being such a perfectionist his headphones sounded like crap.


Do I take advise on headphones from a guy who can't post in the right thread or one of the most successful music producers of all time?
Rating: 5 Votes
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madsci954
61 months ago

What has been implemented from previous purchases in the past 5 years? I ask because I honestly don't know. :confused:


Siri and AuthenTec (Touch ID) to name a couple
Rating: 4 Votes
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vice-versa
61 months ago
Very innovative of Apple. Almost as innovative as taking a magnetic plug used on Asian Water Kettle and putting it on a laptop and then patenting it.
Rating: 3 Votes
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TWSS37
61 months ago
Should have been Waze
Rating: 2 Votes
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thekev
61 months ago

Who?
Apple is pretty good at buying companies I've never heard of, while Google buys a number of large companies with whom I'm more familiar.


It helps them get a good deal when they aren't after the brand itself. Just being unknown outside of tech circles doesn't mean untalented or lacking a good product.
Rating: 2 Votes
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SandPebble
61 months ago

Should have been Waze


I think Google bought Waze.
Rating: 2 Votes
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theipodgod16
61 months ago
This whole cottage industry is saturated to the hilt.
Rating: 2 Votes
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patent10021
60 months ago

For being such a perfectionist his headphones sounded like crap.


Your hate for someone you don't even know has got you so wound up you post in the wrong thread.

Congrats on the fail of spirituality.
Rating: 1 Votes

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