Pin Drop is a new iPhone app and website which helps people mark locations that matter to them. One or two other startups are trying out this arena, most notable Everplaces, still in private beta, however it feels like the market is wide open for this kind of application which you could also describe as a sort of Evernote for location I think.
Users can drop their own pins or they can take inspiration from the curated lists feature. Each pin can then be assigned to multiple categories allowing users to build up a library of their favourite locations.
Now, this is no Foursquare. There are no points, no badges, no leader boards to game. All of a users’ pins are private unless they choose to share them and make them public. Of course, ideally many will become public, thus populate the globe.
Users can optionally backup, manage and view their pins on pindropapp.com. In the future this will also allow them to use apps built with the Pin Drop API (currently in development – developers can register their interest here).
Andy Ashburner, Pin Drop’s Co-Founder had the idea after being frustrated with the iPhone map app and wanting to keep track of multiple locations and finding Foursquare too feature rich these days. They are finding a lot of people are using it for businesses who add their clients for routes. Truckers are using it to plan routes and add coffee shops along the way.
And indeed, curated lists could become quite a big draw as a help users discover locations based on themes. Already there are lists being produced by Barchick and fashion site WhatIWoreToday.