My Dopplr Annual Report

Here's a good thing. My Dopplr Personal Annual Report.

It's smart, fun, beautifully executed and interesting.

I've never talked about Dopplr properly. And so I shall do that now. Dopplr is basically a social network for frequent travellers. But you don't have to travel that frequently. And you don't have to be a Lounge junkie either. You simply add your trips to your page and your friends can see where you'll be and when. This leads to interesting little coincidences and global bump-in-to's. It's simpler than it sounds.

I met Aaron from Flickr t'other day. It was a great privilege because Flickr is one of my favourite things ever. One of the reasons I love it is because it's so quiet. So polite.

Unlike Facebook which is the drunk sex pest of the internet, Flickr is your smart, humble, heart warming friend. Quiet and brilliant. And Dopplr is similar.

Thing is, it's really hard to explain why. You have to sign up and use it for a few months. Properly use it. Update it as required.

It doesn't email you all the fucking time by default. You can set the prefs to email you as little or as often as you like, even never. The design is smart and elegant. But more than that the little interactions are elgant too. Every fade, or ajax effect is effortless. It feels crafted and cared for. That's a rare quality on the internet.

Matt and Matt often talk about creating a website you never have to visit. I love this idea. They're starting to build it. For example, if you book a trip with BA (or any airline) simply forward the email itinerary Dopplr and it will automatically update your page. If you're suddenly taking a last minute one day trip to Manchester, send Dopplr's Twitter account a DM Tweet and it will add the trip for you. You don't even have to go to Dopplr to see your trips, you load them directly into iCal. Smart stuff.

 

They do loads of other clever things to. Quietly building on the original concept. Elegantly, appropriately and exactly how you would do it (you know, if you were perfect and were doing all the things you said you'd do). Like this, they bring in pictures of places from Flickr and add them to that places page, all under a Creative Commons licence. Perfect.

You should sign up and see for yourself.

Comments

[alexparrott]

I've never quite 'got' Dopplr and I don't think I'm it's ideal user, but I'd sign up solely for my own annual report – superb.

[Tom]

Your Dopplr Personal Annual Report isn't that 'smart, fun, beautifully executed and interesting' on MY machine - as I can't even open it !

Probably for the best as I have work to do. If only I could get into 'Word'.....

[Russell]

I had a quick flick through some of the updates in iLife 09. The new version of iPhoto looks to have something similar in the way that it can create a map of where the photos were taken. Not sure if this is automatic or not?

Could be worth a getting the upgrade to find out.

[Steve]

Despite how gorgeous and 'right' dopplr is, I couldn't see how it would be relevant outside of a niche group of global conference-visiting users (which isn't me). So I never bothered with it.

I'll give it a go though.

[Ben]

Steve, Alex, you are both wrong. You don't need to travel very far or even to fly to enjoy it.

If you went to Bath a few times a year, by car that would be fine. Technically you could plot from Battersea to Greenwich everyday. Try it, you might like it.