This is Pinwheel, a new iOS app for leaving and finding virtual notes anywhere in the real world.
It’s in private beta right now, but you can join in if you ask nicely and leave your email address in the box of the Pinwheel home page.
Pinwheel is the brainchild of former Flickr and Hunch co-founder, Caterina Fake. She announced on her blog yesterday:
On Pinwheel you can find and leave notes all around the world. The notes can be public or private, shared with an individual, a group or everyone. They can be organized into sets … You can follow people, places and sets.
In short, she said, it’s Flickr for places. Sort of.
It’s also another social network to sign up for. Some people can’t get enough of them, others are perhaps a little weary of them. But this one looks rather different, because it adds the concept of geographical serendipity. You might be just strolling down the street when your phone pops up with a note, hidden in that spot by a friend of yours a few days before.
It might also pop up with something resembling an advertisement, because Sponsored Notes is how Pinwheel plans to make money.
I’m keen to see how this will work in practice. I’ve got a feeling that Pinwheel works rather like Twitter, in that you’ll only see Sponsored Notes from organisations you chose to follow (if you’re already using the beta and know differently, please correct me on that).
But the social part looks like lots of fun. I’ve signed up for the beta, so hopefully I’ll see you there soon. Or at least leave you a note.
