WHAT’S HAPPENING
- Free Web application Avoidr puts a snarky spin on the location-based services scene by acknowledging that sometimes knowing where not to go is the primary objective (DownloadSquad.com 4.19.10).
- Built off of traditional LBS network Foursquare, Avoidr cheekily promises consumers the ability to “check where your not-friends are so you can avoid them.” Consumers just scroll through their Foursquare contact list to decide which persons they’re looking to dodge and then assign them an accompanying insult (personal favorite: “ass-hat”). Consumers then have a one-click take on the whereabouts of those Foursquare foes.
- San Francisco-based technologist Jesper Anderson was inspired to create the Avoidr tool after numerous friends recently went through breakups.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS
- While the real utility Avoidr provides is scant — e-mail alerts would be more helpful, and seriously, who has that many enemies? — it’s arrival on the social network scene speaks to consumers’ growing awareness of the downsides of digital connectivity. Consumers are intent on finding fun ways to tweak social network conventions for their own, sometimes antisocial, purposes.
RESOURCES
