‘Social Discovery’ Is This Year’s Hot SXSW Trend
Austin’s annual South By Southwest (SXSW) festival is where users started tweeting and checking in on Foursquare long before those services broke through to a mass audience. The gathering has become the Web industry’s debutante ball — the place where star startups announce themselves to the world.
Here’s the twist: Most of this year’s hot bets are about making offline connections.
The trend that has everyone buzzing in advance is “social discovery” tools. They’re GPS-enabled apps that let people learn more about others in their vicinity.
Take Highlight, an app that alerts users when they’re near other Highlight participants with common friends and interests. Sign in through Facebook and choose whether you want to see friends, friends of friends, or anyone nearby with similar Facebook interests. The app will push notifications to you when someone in proximity meets your specs. Highlight users can also message one another through the service.