Fwix and the Local Web
July 7, 2010
I read a tweet about some load balancing problems at Fwix.com today. Before the craziness of my whirlwind trip to Spain and the 4th of July weekend, I received a link to a story in EarthTimes. “Fwix Begins Indexing the Local Web” reported:
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — 06/03/10 — Fwix, the local information company, today launched the first-ever hyper local and local information index. Fwix is the fastest-growing local news network, as well as a top-rated iPhone and iPad news app for more than two hundred markets in the English-speaking world. With today’s launch, Fwix expands its content to include not only real-time local and hyper local news, but crime information, real estate, tweets, check-ins, deals and more.
The service operates in near real time. The content consists of blog content and other news from various sources. In June 2010 PaidContent.org said that Fwix was moving beyond news. For me, the key passage in the write up “Fwix Moves Beyond News, Indexing Everything Local” was:
In addition to Twitter and Foursquare, Fwix’s local index will come from a variety of sites, such as Flickr, Yelp, Gowalla, Trulia, Groupon, Citysearch, Oodle and other sources, including local governments and police blotters with information tied to 30,000-plus neighborhoods.
What’s interesting is that one of the founders worked at Xoom.com, where the chief gosling labored along with the chief goose’s partner, Chris Kitze worked.
In a browser, the service sniffs the user’s location and displays news for that city. You can select from ore than 120 cities in the US and a growing number of cities in Canada and the UK. The service is expanding to Australia and New Zealand as well.
The ads on Fwix on July 6, 2010, were provided by Oneriot. Ads were not obtrusive.
The basic Louisville splash page provides search box, ads, and hot links to recent stories, top stories, the weather, and stories by category. A user can register. When we tried to sign up today, we received a “server unavailable” message.
The service is available on the iPad. If you are running around a city with your iPad connected to the network, the service provides a swipeable display. Here’s what that listing in the App Store shows for the interface:
The service has more than 130 US cities and some major cities in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. Canada listings include the major metro areas.
The company has raised more than $6.0 million in two rounds of financing. Worth a look because the New York Times has signed on to syndicate some of its content via Fwix.
Worth a look.
Stephen E Arnold, July 7, 2010
Freebie
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