Say hello to HelloWorld, the latest location-based app that allows users to check-in and share their whereabouts with friends. Much like Foursquare and all the apps that followed, HelloWorld aims to make the personal public. Now, instead of texting your friends to coax them to come keep you company, you can publish a pithy status update with an accompanying picture that will disappear 24 hours later.
TechCrunch says the “core idea of the app is a very simple way of answering” questions like, “Where are you? What are you doing? Who are you with? Wanna come over? Are you with Amanda? Why are you hanging out with her when you could be hanging out with me? She’s kind of boring, right? Like, in a nice way but it’s just surprising that you’d be out with her and not me, you know? Anyway, wanna hang out later? Lunch? Dinner? Drinks? Movie? Hello? Hello? You still there? Hello?”
It’s a bit unclear as to how this app differs from all the other apps out there. One noteworthy feature is that it doesn’t publish your exact location — making it more secretive, and thus less potentially creepy than Fourquare. The UX design is also significantly cuter than most, as is the name (literally, does anyone even know what “Foursquare” means without Googling it?). Those factors are reason enough to check it out.
Another, more significant reason we’re paying attention is because of the founder. Very few Silicon Valley startups are helmed by a minority woman (unfortunate, but that’s how that goes because #yesallwomen).
Ernestine Fu basically just started college five minutes ago and is still somehow about to earn her PhD in engineering at Stanford. TechCrunch reports on her litany of accomplishments, which include appearing in Forbes on one of their “most impressive people ever” lists and coauthoring a dense-sounding book with the former dean of Stanford Law School. Her colleagues all seem to think she’s the bee’s knees.
With all this to say, we’re excited to see where Fu goes in the next few years. HelloWorld seems to be just the first stepping stone.
Have you used HelloWorld? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
