Osutra – Twitter Meets The Hyperlocal Market
Twitter switched from ‘What are you doing now’ to ‘What’s happening now’ and it’s quite natural that many new players will take the conversation built around one’s location (‘Where are you doing what’er you are doing’).![OsutraLogos[1]](http://www.pluggd.in/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/OsutraLogos1.png "OsutraLogos[1]")
Osutra, a service launched by OnYoMo team lets you share/track locality updates – for instance, you can track ‘what’s happening in your locality by following updates( that matches the locality name or the PIN code).
Twitter Meets the Hyperlocal market with Osutra
You can send updates mentioning the zipcode/area name, along with the status update (limit of 500 characters). Osutra is integrated with Twitter as well – i.e. all your updates can be pushed to Twitter.
While the idea sounds interesting (think of it as a reverse LBS, where you share your location and maybe in future, you get services/advertisements based on your shared location), it does beg an important question – how many of your status updates are about ‘a particular location’ or are location relevant?
Significant number of updates are surely about one’s review of restaurant/theatre etc. but asking people to fill another box (i.e. location) may not be a great idea.
Also, a new service should harness the existing content (from blogs/other content sources) – there is no point expecting the user (maybe an elastic user syndrome) to update their status in 10 different products.
Give Osutra a spin and share your comments.
Hi – this is shailesh – Osutra’s founder. Ashish – I have a few comments on your observation about Osutra:
1. Osutra is NOT primarily a status updates platform as such, though you can do that there – its a Local Network where people can discuss stuff around locality – local news, events (eg there is garba tonight), or classifieds (like craigslist’s), rideshares or questions around locality (eg is there a fruits shop here that sells AshGourd?) etc. Its a platform to bring together the wisdom of the locals.
If you look at About Us, Osutra’s objective is to help people track and share timely, important local information.
Yes, the format is similar to that of twitter, since users are familiar with that – but thats where it stops. Osutra gives a full fledged locality page to track your favorite localities (eg Select Citywalk, or MG Road, or Bandstand etc) for anything going on there. It allows you to connect with the users active around those localities.
2. About filling another box, on web, its shear convenience (and wider usability) for which it’s been there. It works without an extra box on SMS! Give it a spin by sending START to 53456.
3. You are right about leveraging existing content – its all in the pipeline, and we’ll save the users all hardwork where we can!
Shailesh
I can see value here but Osutra should have integrated better with twitter. They should be a twitter mashup rather than an independent site. The only form of authentication should have been oAuth with Twitter.
Why would I keep the osutra window open when I have twitter?
Twitter=>Osutra:
1. Add the pin/zip as a hashtag on twitter and it appears automatically on osutra.
2. Search twitter content and find anything with the locality name and push it to osutra.
Osutra=>Twitter
3. Osutra should have setup multiple osutra-pincode or osutra-localityname accounts on twitter and pushed updates from their site to that account. This account can then be followed by twitter users.
I can see a lot of value if someone can make tweets related to my locality appear on my twitter stream. But a separate site – I don’t think so.
i think the 3rd point can be done directly if u subscribe the desired locality in your RSS reader. Twitter may not help because you will have to open a Osutra page for updates more than 140 chars.
Trust us SN, if we thought a mashup did justice to this space, we’d have done just that. Unfortunately, it doesnt.
Just answer this – for your local QnA, classifieds, news, events, traffic, rideshare etc, who are the best people who can help. Can a twitter user help you in any of this? Can any twitter user who you are not following share with you traffic info in say Linking Road, can you share the same with people planning to drive on Linking Road? Can your followers on twitter answer this: which grocery store in say MG Road (say this is your neighborhood) sells Raw Honey? Only other locals/passers by tracking Linking Road or MG Road can answer this and many more. And thus Osutra.
However, we do take your point – it should be better integrated with Twitter – trust us, it will be – we’ve just started!
@shailesh
You missed my point when you ask “Can a twitter user help you in any of this?”. “A twitter user” cannot, but “twitter users” can.
I don’t want to find and follow every user in Twitter who is in my location. All I want to see is every tweet about my location. I can do this by setting up a search. But there is a possibility of doing something far more intelligent than that. That is what my post above was saying.
Also do take a look at Twitter’s new Geolocation API. They are focusing on the question of “what’s going on where I am?”.
http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-api-announce/browse_thread/thread/f6608c09902976c6?hl=en
I wish you well. Good luck.
@naman. I am already used to opening up webpages on other sites if the tweet is interesting. Why would opening up an osutra page be any different if it is linked to from an interesting tweet?
SN – many thanks for your wishes.
May be there is something in your mind that I am unable to see – lets have a chat one-o-one – might be really helpful for us. pls do drop a line at shailesh@osutra.com
How different is this from everyblock.com ?
R they doing good?
I understand everyone needs the information you said about Honey and AshGourd … is the business model working?
Kasi – in what i know of everyblock.com, its primarily a local content syndication service. Osutra is more of a Local Networking service, with scope for integrating 3rd party content. So the biggest difference is user involvement. and thus, it cannot be compared.
i dont know about the business model part – however i do know that there is an opportunity through such platforms to form a strong local network that shares traffic updates; asks and answers local questions; posts and responds to rentals etc classifieds. with the mobile Osutra coming thru m.osutra.com, and sms (send START to 53456), the utility goes up further.