FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 17, 2010

TriOut the Triangle with a location-based service

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – When Lawrence Ingraham relocated to the Triangle from San Francisco with his wife and young daughter, they had a tough time learning their new area and connecting with new people. From finding the best Mexican restaurant to great concert venues and kid-friendly spaces, learning an area as large as the Triangle was daunting.

Ingraham, who dabbled with creating iPhone applications to entertain his daughter, envisioned a better way to connect with his new hometown. At the time, location-based services such as FourSquare were only available in a few large cities. So Ingraham started brainstorming a local-based application that would connect people and help locals find hot spots based on their feedback.

A chance encounter with social media strategist Wayne Sutton got the ball rolling when Sutton began to help Ingraham flesh out the idea with ways to make the application more user-friendly and create a more valuable service. That’s when the North Carolina-focused TriOut application was born.

“I wanted to create something that really serves the community. I love living here and there is so much to do that it’s overwhelming to newcomers,” Ingraham said. “What TriOut does is let North Carolina residents – new and old – get to know their area.”

The 200 beta testers of the application seem to agree. Since October, more than 2,000 locations have been logged into the service. Users can also submit photos and post reviews of locations, a service not provided by other location-based applications. And if users choose to turn off privacy settings, they can announce their location to their TriOut friends so they can meet up. Locations can also be announced via Twitter or Facebook.

The privacy settings are one aspect that makes it stand-out among competitors according to Ingraham. “Safety is an important aspect of location-based applications and I’ve spoken to many women who don’t participate because they don’t feel comfortable sharing their location with the world,” said Ingraham. “TriOut allows users to check into a place and get points for it while remaining anonymous.”

Points are accumulated for using the service. Checking in, posting a review, or rating a location earns points. The points are accumulated on a weekly basis. The points are mostly for bragging rights, but Sutton sees potential for businesses to reward their most frequent customers.

Another way TriOut stands out among the competition is a unique algorithym that determines popularity for a location. By using the ratings posted by users and the number of users who have visited the location, TriOut will recommend places for users to explore.

“I believe our rating system will help give credibility to our reviews and ratings,” said Ingraham. “So many times when you are reading reviews from user-generated content, you wonder if it is either the owner or the competitor posting the review. So with TriOut, the more popular a place is, the higher rating it will receive if the reviews are in line with its popularity.”

The rating system is one way that Sutton believes will help build community and help Triangle residents to find new hot spots or tried and true gems. “Our goal is to create a place that helps you meet people, find new places and discover things to do in the Triangle,” he said. “Social networks have us connecting with more and more people, but it’s all from behind a computer. Our goal is to really connect people in a meaningful way.”

So far, locations check-ins have been spread fairly evenly throughout the Triangle, so residents from Carrboro to Smithfield will find their area represented.

TriOut is now available free for iPhone users in North Carolina. The focus is on the Triangle, but users can check in from anywhere. And while the initial application is for iPhone users, a Web site, www.TriOutNC.com is now live for North Carolinians to check in or to explore the Triangle. Applications for other phone platforms are in the planning stages.

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MEDIA CONTACT: Jen Nixon, (919) 971-0155, jen@tri-out.com

Written by: jennifernixon

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