Eventful
Encyclopedia
Eventful is a web service
which aims to help users search for, track, and share information about events. Eventful is a service of Eventful, Inc. (formerly EVDB, Inc.) from San Diego, California
. EVDB stands for "Events and Venues Database", and anyone may add information about events, venues, and performers.
Yahoo!
's Upcoming is a competing service.
Eventful Demand allows users to declare an event or performance they would like to see locally, and then campaign for others to join their "demand". With enough declared interest, a targeted performer might then decide to plan an actual event. Various presidential campaigns for the 2008 U.S. election utilized Eventful Demand, most notably John Edwards
, Barack Obama
, and Ron Paul
. The company announced its users had created the 500,000th demand on August 16. The company claims the service has over 2 million users and is growing at approximately 100,000 new users per week.
A major feature of Eventful is My Eventful, which enables users to view their watch list, which is a list of events they can optionally indicate they are "going to", as well as a list of events from the combined watch lists of all other users designated as "friends". My Eventful also provides users with a way to view and manage a list of favorite performers and venues, as well as a list of "saved searches" akin to Google Alerts
. My Eventful also summarizes all Demands that a user has joined or started.
Users can import their iTunes
libraries or Last.fm
profiles to indicate which performers are "favorites". The service then sends notifications when nearby events featuring these favorite performers are scheduled to occur.
A web services application programming interface
is provided to use Eventful information in other programs and websites, such as mashups
, as well as to load new or modify existing data about events, venues, or performers.
, the late-90s Mp3.com
, and early consumer-Linux
startup Eazel
. A public beta test under the name EVDB.com was launched in March 2005, and the service changed its name to Eventful.com in September 2005. The company was renamed Eventful, Inc. in August 2006.
Since inception, the company has raised approximately $19.6 million in financing. Investors include Esther Dyson
, Evan Williams
, Mark Pincus
, Josh Kopelman
, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
, Bay Partners, and Omidyar Network
.
Web service
A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...
which aims to help users search for, track, and share information about events. Eventful is a service of Eventful, Inc. (formerly EVDB, Inc.) from San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
. EVDB stands for "Events and Venues Database", and anyone may add information about events, venues, and performers.
Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
's Upcoming is a competing service.
Functionality
Users can search for events worldwide by time, location, performer, and descriptive keyword. Users can create private or public calendars, including "smart" calendars which automatically update when events matching search criteria are added or existing events are modified. As of July 2007 the company claimed it had approximately 4 million future events in its search engine index.Eventful Demand allows users to declare an event or performance they would like to see locally, and then campaign for others to join their "demand". With enough declared interest, a targeted performer might then decide to plan an actual event. Various presidential campaigns for the 2008 U.S. election utilized Eventful Demand, most notably John Edwards
John Edwards
Johnny Reid "John" Edwards is an American politician, who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in...
, Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, and Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...
. The company announced its users had created the 500,000th demand on August 16. The company claims the service has over 2 million users and is growing at approximately 100,000 new users per week.
A major feature of Eventful is My Eventful, which enables users to view their watch list, which is a list of events they can optionally indicate they are "going to", as well as a list of events from the combined watch lists of all other users designated as "friends". My Eventful also provides users with a way to view and manage a list of favorite performers and venues, as well as a list of "saved searches" akin to Google Alerts
Google Alerts
Google Alerts is content change detection and notification service, offered by the search engine company Google, that automatically notifies users when new content from news, web, blogs, video and/or discussion groups matches a set of search terms selected by the user and stored by the Google...
. My Eventful also summarizes all Demands that a user has joined or started.
Users can import their iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
libraries or Last.fm
Last.fm
Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
profiles to indicate which performers are "favorites". The service then sends notifications when nearby events featuring these favorite performers are scheduled to occur.
A web services application programming interface
Application programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
is provided to use Eventful information in other programs and websites, such as mashups
Mashup (web application hybrid)
In Web development, a mashup is a Web page or application that uses and combines data, presentation or functionality from two or more sources to create new services...
, as well as to load new or modify existing data about events, venues, or performers.
History
Eventful, Inc. was founded as EVDB, Inc. in January 2004 in La Jolla, California, by Brian Dear, a veteran of eBayEBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
, the late-90s Mp3.com
MP3.com
MP3.com is a web site operated by CNET Networks providing information about digital music and artists, songs, services, community, and technologies. It is probably better known for its original incarnation, as a legal, free music-sharing service, popular with independent musicians for promoting...
, and early consumer-Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
startup Eazel
Eazel
Eazel was a software company based in Mountain View, California from 1999 to 2001.The enterprise was staffed with former employees of Apple Computer, Netscape, Be Inc., Linuxcare, Microsoft, Red Hat and Sun Microsystems, among others. Mike Boich was CEO; Bud Tribble was VP of Engineering; Andy...
. A public beta test under the name EVDB.com was launched in March 2005, and the service changed its name to Eventful.com in September 2005. The company was renamed Eventful, Inc. in August 2006.
Since inception, the company has raised approximately $19.6 million in financing. Investors include Esther Dyson
Esther Dyson
Esther Dyson is a former journalist and Wall Street technology analyst who is a leading angel investor, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and commentator focused on breakthrough innovation in healthcare, government transparency, digital technology, biotechnology, and space...
, Evan Williams
Evan Williams (blogger)
Evan Williams is an American entrepreneur who has founded several Internet companies. Two of the internet's top ten websites have been created by Evan Williams' companies: Blogger, weblog-authoring software of Pyra Labs, and Twitter, where he was previously CEO.-Early life and education:Williams...
, Mark Pincus
Mark Pincus
Mark Jonathan Pincus is an Internet entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of Zynga, which makes online social games. Pincus also founded Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks, and SupportSoft. Pincus currently serves as CEO of Zynga, which had 232 million monthly active users as of July 1, 2011...
, Josh Kopelman
Josh Kopelman
Joshua Kopelman is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and philanthropist.Kopelman is best known as the founder of Half.com, a fixed price marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of used books, movies and music products. In 2000, Kopelman sold Half.com to EBay for US $350...
, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California with affiliate offices in more than 30 cities around the world and over $7 billion in capital commitments....
, Bay Partners, and Omidyar Network
Omidyar Network
Omidyar Network is a philanthrocapitalist investment firm established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. To date, Omidyar Network has committed more than $290 million to for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual...
.
External links
- Eventful website
- Eventful API website
- Silicon Beat: organizing the world's events EVDB launch coverage in a blog from the San Jose Mercury NewsSan Jose Mercury NewsThe San Jose Mercury News is a daily newspaper in San Jose, California. On its web site, however, it calls itself Silicon Valley Mercury News. The paper is owned by MediaNews Group...
- Event