[Germany] Berlin-based Tagcrumbs wants to be the YouTube for places, although a much more apt comparison might be Delicious. The location-based service, which on the surface competes with usual suspects Foursquare, Yelp, Gowalla and Germany’s own Dailyplaces, enables users to bookmark, tag and share places.
This week Tagcrumbs debuted its iPhone app (iTunes link), which takes advantage of the phone’s GPS capability, making it a snap to begin using the service. Users aren’t even required to sign-up to start discovering new places.
Unlike Foursquare and similar services, however, there’s no attempt to build in any kind of gaming element, users don’t ‘check-in’ and there’s no associated badge of honor. Instead, the model seems more akin to social bookmarking in which the motivation to use the service is selfish as well as social. Places can be bookmarked purely for a user’s own convenience (and even made private) or shared with followers and therefore the wider Tagcrumb community.
To bookmark a place (or strictly speaking, create a tagcrumb), users take a photo, give it a title, description, and some tags, and then save their tagcrumb. It’s that simple, although the app has a nifty trick up its sleeve – the ability to save a ‘draft’ while the phone is out of cellular or WiFi coverage or has data roaming switched off when abroad, relying solely on GPS. The tagcrumb can then be uploaded later, such as back at a user’s hotel.
This makes it ideal for backpackers and other types of traveler who might want to bookmark places of specialist or niche interest, such as “airplane spotting locations at Frankfurt airport” or “scuba diving spots”, says Tagcrumbs co-founder Cornelius Rabsch.
In other words, it not just about recommending the best coffee shops or cafes, Yelp-style. And of course, just like its competitors, users can use Tagcrumbs to discover places nearby.
Tagcrumbs was founded by Benedikt Foit, Sascha Konietzke and Cornelius Rabsch in 2008 while the three were studying at university. The startup is currently bootstrapped but is in the progress of closing an angel round with money from family, friends and other individual investors.