Socialight’s “Urban Mixtape”

When you go to [city], you HAVE to check out [cool place], [fun bar], [amazing restaurant]… How many times have you said some variation of that line to friend after friend? Our friends at Socialight (in partnership with Organic) are making it easier for you to play guide with their “Urban Mixtapes.” Essentially, their “channels” concept with a tweaked interface, a “mixtape” makes it easy to note your favorite locations in a city and send them to your friends. It’s a kinder, gentler location-based service.

A mixtape lets Socialight users easily curate a personal collection of places and tag it with their own information or existing editorial content. These can be created, shared, and accessed on any mobile or web device. Users can receive an SMS or email the link to their Urban Mixtape — easily viewed on any web-enabled phone — and dynamically reordered around their current location. It can also be accessed with a GPS-enabled handset using the Socialight Mobile application.

As Michael Sharon, co-counder of Socialight, told us, “no one really uses guidebooks anymore. If they do, they just use a few pages. This is closer to what people are doing anyway.” Indeed, the service facilitates the online sharing we all do, but automates the extra work (mapping, directions, looking up reviews, etc) and makes it easy to navigate on the go.

The service launched with a CTIA appropriate “insider’s guide to Las Vegas” stocked with content from Thrillist, Bravo, and Travel Channel. Eventually, Organic and Socialight will look at what makes sense from a targeted marketing perspective (a mobile coupon to your friend’s favorite store? happy hour specials at a nearby bar?), but currently the mixtapes are ad-free. They are also music-free. Perhaps “mixtape” is just the new “mashup.”

Related PSFK articles:
Location-based Services in Europe: An Interview with Socialight London
Socialight on PSFK