Announcing Whithr (beta)

It has to be said that I’m a little indecisive at times. For instance, I’m always happy to “go with the crowd” when it comes to suggesting somewhere to meet friends and very rarely propose a venue myself. This can be a problem when everyone that you are trying to meet up with is of the same non-committal mindset.

I was struck by an idea while strutting to work yesterday morning. Later that afternoon I remembered that it was actually a redux of an idea that came about a couple of years ago: using Google maps to work out a central point twixt your location and the location of those you want to meet.

To this end I knocked up Whithr over the course of the last couple of evenings. Click on the map to indicate the location of people you plan on meeting (and obviously your own location too) and a marker will be placed at the most mutually convenient midpoint. By default this point is weighted toward being beneficial to the majority of people but you can change this to get a fairer average by selecting the “Needs of the few” option. You can remove a location marker by double clicking on it or move it around by clicking and dragging.

Next, either type the kind of place you want to meet at (like “pizza” or “sushi”) in the search box below the map or click on one of the predefined options (”coffee”, “pub” or “restaurant”) to get some suggestions.

It’s still a work in progress with a few bugs and issues remaining but also some interesting ideas emerging for future enhancements.

Mad props to DN, Alex and Simon.