Passive Search and the Hyper-Local
A natural synergy exists between passive search and hyper-local content. At Hapnin, we’re building a platform and the tools to make it as easy (and fun) as possible to find hapnins around you that are going on now.
Active Search, Passive Search and Data
Most people are very comfortable searching for info online. The process is straightforward, go to your favorite search engine and type in your query, “when is Easter 2009,” “bar on A map,” or “Bronx Zoo.” This behavior is called active search; you’re actively looking for information. For many queries, actively searching is the best way to find the data because it’s direct and unanticipated. With active search, you’re pulling data from a source. A thought pops into your head and you search.
Passive search allows you to setup criteria and have the data pushed to you. Financial data, weather, social feeds and RSS are excellent examples of passive search. It is much more convenient for you to setup your portfolio in Google Finance than it is to actively search for each quote. When you want to, you can easily check your portfolio and see its changes without searching. (The data is just there when you need it, no searching required.)
Twitter and Facebook are also good examples of passive search. On both sites, you select people who are important to you, people you want to receive information from. Once they are selected (accepted your friend request), the data they share will be pushed to you. You don’t need to look at everyone’s profile, you can see all the news that’s important to you in your feed. This is one reason these sites have exploded in popularity, it’s easy to get information you care about.
Passive Search and Hyper-Local Events
Why can’t we do this with hyper-local events? Why can’t you select a neighborhood and event category and get updated? The Coovents East Village Twitter account shows the synergy between passive search and hyper-local events. The Coovents_East account tweets every time a happy hour in the East Village starts. When you follow this account (criteria) it will send (push) you data.
What’s Next
There is so much more to do with passive search and hyper-local content. One of our goals is to make our service so useful and intuitive that you don’t need to search for events, rather they’ll come to you. I’m usually looking for interesting things to do on Saturday and Sunday afternoons in New York. Why can’t these events be pushed to me when I want them?
Soon, finding hyper-local events will be much easier.
Greg
