Where.com
Encyclopedia
Where, Inc. is a location-based media company in North America. Their main product is the WHERE consumer application, with over 3 million active users. It helps users discover, save and share local places by putting high quality local information at users’ fingertips and integrating promotional and discount offers from local merchants. WHERE is a top ranked application on all mobile platforms and carriers. WHERE Ads is the firm’s hyper-local ad network, connecting merchants with local audiences. It delivers over 1 billion hyper-local ads monthly to over 100 publishers. eBay
announced its acquisition of Where.com in 2011. Boston Innovation is reporting the acquisition price at $135 million.
In March 2007, WHERE launched as a location-based mobile service. The goal of WHERE is to provide local search content that helps consumers save time and money.
WHERE provides hyper-local information and user generated content about weather, news, movies, restaurant and business reviews, cheap gas, coupons and offers, traffic, etc. Brands such as Starbucks, Yellow Pages and Zipcar use WHERE to reach local audiences by providing data for various features within WHERE. For example, a Starbucks feature lets users search for and find directions to the Starbucks nearest their current location. WHERE also includes features that allow people to review locations and keep lists of places they’ve been and places they want to go.
In 2010 WHERE launched a Check-in feature on Android and iPhone versions of WHERE. It allows users to announce when they enter a location, be it a restaurant or other business, and then broadcast this information to their friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter. WHERE also launched the Placebook feature along with Check-in. People can use Placebook to store lists of favorite places and places they want to go to. Placebook also stores all of the reviews a person leaves on WHERE. Placebook can be accessed from WHERE on mobile devices or from Where.com. Both the Web and mobile versions of Placebook automatically synch with each other.
WHERE is available in North America, is free on some devices, and can be downloaded for free from the Android Market
, BlackBerry App World
, iOS App Store, and Palm App Catalog
. WHERE is also available from the AT&T MEdia Mall, T-Mobile web2go, and VZW V Cast Apps.
WHERE, Inc. is backed by Kodiak Venture Partners, Grand Banks Capital and Venrock. The firm is headquartered in Boston
. Several industry experts sit on its board including Craig Forman
.
, Boost Mobile
, Helio, MetroPCS
, Sprint
, Verizon Wireless
, Virgin
Mobile smartphone devices — Android, BlackBerry
, iPhone
, Palm
, Windows Phone 7
EBay
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...
announced its acquisition of Where.com in 2011. Boston Innovation is reporting the acquisition price at $135 million.
About
Where, Inc. was founded in 2004 under the name uLocate Communications, Inc. by partners, Geoff Palmer, Frank Schroth, and Alan Phillips. uLocate spent its early days creating family tracking services as well as building location based applications for companies such as MapQuest and Helio.In March 2007, WHERE launched as a location-based mobile service. The goal of WHERE is to provide local search content that helps consumers save time and money.
WHERE provides hyper-local information and user generated content about weather, news, movies, restaurant and business reviews, cheap gas, coupons and offers, traffic, etc. Brands such as Starbucks, Yellow Pages and Zipcar use WHERE to reach local audiences by providing data for various features within WHERE. For example, a Starbucks feature lets users search for and find directions to the Starbucks nearest their current location. WHERE also includes features that allow people to review locations and keep lists of places they’ve been and places they want to go.
In 2010 WHERE launched a Check-in feature on Android and iPhone versions of WHERE. It allows users to announce when they enter a location, be it a restaurant or other business, and then broadcast this information to their friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter. WHERE also launched the Placebook feature along with Check-in. People can use Placebook to store lists of favorite places and places they want to go to. Placebook also stores all of the reviews a person leaves on WHERE. Placebook can be accessed from WHERE on mobile devices or from Where.com. Both the Web and mobile versions of Placebook automatically synch with each other.
WHERE is available in North America, is free on some devices, and can be downloaded for free from the Android Market
Android Market
Android Market is an online software store developed by Google for Android OS devices. Its gateway is an application program called "Market", preinstalled on most Android devices, allows users to browse and download mobile apps published by third-party developers...
, BlackBerry App World
BlackBerry App World
BlackBerry App World is an application distribution service and application by Research In Motion for a majority of BlackBerry devices. The service provides BlackBerry users with an environment to browse, download, and update third-party applications. The service went live on April 1, 2009...
, iOS App Store, and Palm App Catalog
Palm App Catalog
The Palm App Catalog is an online marketplace for applications for Palm mobile devices running webOS but not Palm OS.The App Catalog is similar to Apple's App Store for iOS, Google's Android Market for Android, and Nokia's Ovi Store for Nokia devices...
. WHERE is also available from the AT&T MEdia Mall, T-Mobile web2go, and VZW V Cast Apps.
WHERE, Inc. is backed by Kodiak Venture Partners, Grand Banks Capital and Venrock. The firm is headquartered in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. Several industry experts sit on its board including Craig Forman
Craig Forman
Craig Forman is a media, technology and telecommunications executive andformer Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent and bureau chief.-Career and Sale of WHERE Inc. to Ebay Inc.:...
.
Where.com
The consumer site Where.com launched in March 2010. The Website is a local search and recommendation portal that allows people to find local events, read reviews and other business information, and write their own reviews. On Where.com, people can also create their own user accounts or use their current WHERE mobile application account information to build a personal profile. Personal profiles allow people to store lists of places they’ve been to, places they want to go to and places they’ve reviewed. Where.com syncs with the mobile WHERE.WHERE Ads
WHERE Ads is a new hyper-local ad network that localizes traditional advertising techniques with improved performance for better results. Ads engage consumers through location relevance, design optimizing, and delivery format flexibility. The outcome is a network that creates value for both publisher and consumer, efficiently reaching millions with more precision and less waste. As of January 2011, WHERE Ads is the 6th largest mobile ad network in the United States.Patents
The firm possesses several patents including one for geo-fencing location technology and one for auto-snap location technology.Availability
Wireless carriers — AT&TAT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, Boost Mobile
Boost Mobile
Boost Mobile is a brand of wireless prepay service run by Sprint Nextel, operating within the Sprint Prepaid Group along with Virgin Mobile USA, Assurance Wireless, and payLo by Virgin Mobile. Boost Mobile uses GSMand iDEN networks...
, Helio, MetroPCS
MetroPCS
MetroPCS Communications, Inc. , formerly known as General Wireless, Inc., is an American mobile phone service provider. It operates the fifth largest mobile telecommunications network in the US, with 8.9 million subscribers as of May 2011...
, Sprint
Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...
, Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless
Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, is one of the largest mobile network operators in the United States. The network has 107.7 million subscribers as of 2011, making it the largest wireless service provider in America....
, Virgin
Virgin Group
Virgin Group Limited is a British branded venture capital conglomerate organisation founded by business tycoon Richard Branson. The core business areas are travel, entertainment and lifestyle. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding...
Mobile smartphone devices — Android, BlackBerry
BlackBerry
BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
, iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
, Palm
Palm (PDA)
Palm handhelds were Personal Digital Assistants which ran the Palm OS. Palm devices have evolved from handhelds to smartphones which run Palm OS, WebOS, and Windows Mobile...
, Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market...