What If WordPress, Instagram & Google Maps Got Drunk and Had a Baby?

I recently found Findery. Which is precisely what the growing social media platform wants people to do: find things. Not as brief as Twitter and not as much of a rabbit hole as Facebook, Findery applies a layer of localization to an expansive social internet. Imagine WordPress, Instagram and Google Maps all getting together and smashing a handle of vodka; one thing leads to another and the next morning a disheveled Google Maps is at the local CVS surveying the pregnancy test aisle. That baby would be unique, and it would be named Findery.

Founded by Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake, Findery asks its users to leave and find notes at places around the world. These notes can be anything: photos, poems, blogs, questions, anecdotes, drawings, facts, musings, lists, observations and much more. Unlike Twitter where people are connected by followers and Facebook, which is about friends, Findery is about physical places, locations and communities, and the knowledge and personal experiences that define them.

Example: I proposed to my fiancé at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Naturally, the hotel will remain a very special place for us. I posted a status update on Facebook, naming the Fairmont as the location of my perspiring, stuttering proposal. But listing the location on Facebook is like writing it on a piece of paper and posting it on a pegboard at the local bar. Then, after two days, taking that piece of paper down and filing it away in a drawer.

Leaving a note on Findery is different. I left a note at the Fairmont and from now on anyone that visits the hotel can find my note. To continue the metaphor, whereas my Facebook post was up for a couple days in the bar and is now gone, this is like my digital life’s historic registry of places just came and hammered a bronze plaque to the entrance of the building.

But if I were not leaving a note, when would I use Findery? There are some instances that I can envision. Maybe I am exploring a new city and stop to grab a beer at a dive bar in an old part of town. I open up Findery on my iPhone and check out the notes in the neighborhood. I would imagine some notes would mirror Yelp or Foursquare: “They have tall-cans of PBR here, but the bathroom door doesn’t lock so hide your junk!” However, another note I find may mention that the hotel across the street once hosted Princess Diana. Or, a Findery user living in the area might have left a note that the bar I am in is where Lindsay Lohan drinks during rehab. Interesting!

This function of living knowledge and experiences collated by location is unique and serves a purpose. People are bored – if not simply exhausted – by the Internet’s size. They want the Internet to focus on their location, which thanks to mobile phones, is always changing.  Instead of wondering what is out there, they say, “I am here. Everyone look at me!” Findery understands and wants to serve this growing market.

The biggest question here is whether Findery is compelling enough to make users want to return? A lot. If watching Facebook and Twitter come of age tells us one thing it is that a successful social network needs users to visit, often, over and over and over. And every time they visit they need to tell someone about it. Essentially, you need to create digital cocaine.

Findery has an interesting product that people will want to check out. They will test it, see how it works, but I am not so sure they will be hooked. Findery is a leisurely experience, something for a lazy weekend on a rainy day. I can’t imagine waking up in the morning and grabbing my phone to check Findery the same way I fiendishly check Twitter.

But maybe Findery is a wild child and doesn’t want to be like (or the size) of Twitter or Facebook. Maybe Findery believes that a smaller, more engaged audience is just as strong as one that is larger, yet detached. After all, location is a relatively new dimension of the Internet and we cannot be sure how people will choose to interact with and use it (hello, Google Glass and augmented reality). The company should observe, collect data and develop its platform to match the habits of its users. If Findery was the result of a wild night between digital juggernauts, then this is like the first impressions in high school. Perceptions matter. Of course, Findery could get roofied and knocked up at a party in Silicon Valley, too. Only time will tell.