WhatsApp Reinvents the 'Yellow Pages' (thenextweb.com) 20
WhatsApp is testing a new "Yellow Pages" like feature in Sao Paulo, Brazil, that will let users search for local shops. The Next Web reports: WhatsApp's head, Will Cathcart, announced this feature and said "we've built this in a private way." He claims that the company won't log your location or the businesses you're searching for. If you live in Sao Paulo, you'll be able to search for local shops using WhatsApp Business through the 'Businesses Nearby' menu in the new chat option. For years, Facebook and Instagram have been trying to connect you to businesses and make your shop through their platforms. While the WhatsApp Business app has been around, you couldn't really search for businesses using the app, unless you've interacted with them previously. The chat app doesn't have any ads, unlike Facebook and Instagram, so business interactions and transactions are one of the biggest ways for Facebook to earn some moolah out of it. Matt Idema, Facebook's vice president of business messaging, told Reuters that while the program is taking off in Brazil, India and Indonesia are the perfect next candidates for expansion.
That's nice and all (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
You're almost saying that like using Google is a good thing...
Then again, your sig links to Fark. Fark politics. In 2021 too.
Reversi? (Score:1)
So now we just need the reverse-Yellow and reverse-White Pages and all will be good.
Only lacking Yelp intimidation of business owners (Score:2)
Or are they also still working on that too?
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Did you think WhatsApp is not owned by Facebook anymore? ;-)
It will never be as cool as the Nynex Yellow Pages (Score:1)
https://youtu.be/1fhBojJ0UOg [youtu.be]
Among many others.
I got an idea, put a big box over a (Score:2)
...cell-phone fastened to post to keep the rain out and have users put quarters in to use it for say 10 minutes. Call it a "phone booth". Naw. Smart Box, that's it! Everyone will want to use it, it's the future!
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paid USB-charging cubbies do exist, which is pretty close.
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Blaspheme!
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As long as the box is big enough for me to change into my cape and tights, it sounds good to me.
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Don't worry, plenty of room, Batgirl.
monetization (Score:3)
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Business APIs. WhatsApp (outside of the USA) makes quite a bit of money through their business arm providing communications from business to customers including automation and chat bots. For a fee.
I suspect something like this could be well used for looking for restaurants in the area and then using their existing functionality to provide an automated text based ordering service which I've already used (thought not for restaurants).
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They can use your location to select ads for display, and get paid for showing those ads to people physically near the thing being advertised, and then simply discard that data.
Facebook may be evil but that doesn't mean it isn't possible to have a no-log local advertising system.
Cross between ... (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
They call it Shit.
FACEBOOK DOES NOT TRACK (Score:2)
>> He claims that the company won't log your location
Facebook does not track you ? That statement is just so wrong.
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Facebook tracks your location, through the Facebook app. Not through the WhatsApp app. You can file the statement under "technically correct".
Every service will evolve into having a kitchen si (Score:1)
nk.*
Give it 20 years, and there will be a WhatsApp OS that you pay with WhatsAppCoin. Another 10 years and ...
what do you think will come first?
* WhatsApp car.
* WhatsApp Foods.
* WhatsApp Aerospace.
* WhatsApp fuckmachine with modular dildo subscription model.
* WhatsApp retirement homes.
(*Only Slashdot never evolved past too short subject lines and ASCII. ;)
Here's my take on it - doPlaces.com (Score:2)
Been working on a similar community directory for a few years now, though it's for a smaller region: https://doplaces.com/ [doplaces.com] Looks like what I had when I launched doPlaces in 2013.
Can't say much more about it as I haven't been doing much marketing for it (I'm more a tool creator), mainly to see it I could do the local community directories one better (wasn''t hard.) I must say it is definitely convenient to pull up a places hours and then quickly get to website/facebook to verify while on the road (as a pass