Looking for useful travel tips in an unknown city, both online and off, can often feel like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. We recently wrote about Nectar and Pulse and Scouted, two services which offer personalized city guides from locals who are matched to a user’s tastes. Kate’s Goodness is now expanding this concept by curating an evolving stream of “Goodness” — places recommended by locals who know and love them — and creating a marketplace where local information is currency.
Kate’s Goodness is an app which attempts to remedy the excess of internet noise by presenting potential hotspots as a single picture with a short, intimately written description and location map. Visitors browse Instagram style posts for recommendations from local writers in their chosen city. After their visit they vote “Goodness” or “Not Quite” depending on their experience, and writers earn or lose points — known as “Goodness Gold” — accordingly. A place can only be written about once — at which point it “belongs” to that writer — and places move up and down the ranks depending on users votes. Visitors also earn Goodness Gold by writing posts, voting and sharing. This way, the app maintains a diplomatic and up-to-date catalogue of tips.
Kate’s Goodness is currently under development, recruiting early access users and global writers alike. You can preview the application in the video below:
Perhaps most intriguingly, the app also includes a stock exchange element — where users can acquire and sell articles to enhance their portfolio and in-app status, trading in Goodness Gold between users. It’s an interesting and playful concept, even if the true value of such trading remains vague for now, as the currency stays isolated within the app. Perhaps there is a partnership opportunity for a company to provide rewards for tastemaker users? Or should Goodness Gold also be offered by local businesses to those who make a visit?
Website: www.katesgoodness.com
Contact: www.katesgoodness.com/contact
