Coincidences with fuzzy edges
As Matt alluded to in his recent post, we’ve been putting in some extra work on one of Dopplr’s core themes: serendipity. As of today, we’ve added “nearby” and “near-miss” coincidences. You can now see when someone adds a trip to a place near where you’ll be, and see who you’ll just miss by a day or two. We hope that both these features will help you get more out of your trips. You’ll also get these notifications in your journal and email alerts. There are examples of each in this screenshot:
If you’d like to hear more about the thinking that goes into designing features like this, you might enjoy watching Matt’s talk “Designing for SpaceTime, Building in No Time” recorded last week at the Interaction ‘08 conference.
Nice feature guys. I spotted that a friend was leaving Dublin the day before I got there and am going to change my plans to meet up with him.
Great idea! I missed an old friend of mine by just a day, passing through a city last year. Both on dopplr, but unfortunately didn’t notice until too late. I’m looking forward to the next fuzzy dopplr serendipity moment with glee!
Nice feature, and I also like the way that the matches also show up for already booked trips. Unfortunately, the fixed nature of such tickets makes this less useful than it could be.
Speaking of tickets and booking, I usually add trips to Dopplr after I’ve paid for my travel. Maybe if there was a more provisional way of seeing when the best time for a journey was I could use that first?
[…] its Singapore release with key updates: 1. More Happy Coincidences Dopplr now informs you of “nearby” and “near-miss” coincidences. You can see when someone adds a trip to a place near where you’ll be, and see who you’ll just […]