New to an area? Google app to the rescue

Mumbai: Google’s Next Billion Users team on Thursday rolled out the beta version of its new app called ‘Neighbourly’ to help people source local information from their neighbours.

Launched with the goal of tapping into the ‘collective wisdom’ of community, the app will use GPS to bring users into virtual neighbourhoods where questions pertaining to their geographical area can be asked and answered.

Explaining the rationale behind the app, Josh Woodward, Group Product Manager, Next Billion Users, Google, said, “We found that word of mouth is the most common way for people to find out any information about their neighbourhood. But this is disintegrating. Today, if I want to find out where the best sweet shop in Borivali is, I might not know who to ask. The app tries to bring that helpful, neighbourly spirit back to the surface.”

So far, the app has only been released in Mumbai. “Talking to people in the city showed us there is a real need for an app like this, especially with Mumbai being such a melting pot of communities. People from other cities can opt to be put on a waitlist to show their interest in the app and this waitlist will be tracked by us. We will be taking the app to cities with high demand in the coming weeks,” said Mr. Woodward. He added that they were not looking to monetise the app in the near future.

Neighbourly, which is only available to Android users as of now, will present users with a stack of 15 questions that can be shuffled as per the user’s wish.

Virtual medals will be given to users for their timeliness and frequency in answering questions, thus identifying the more helpful users. Mr. Woodward added, “The app lets users ask questions in eight regional languages apart from English. To make people feel safe and comfortable while interacting, we will only be asking them to share their first name.”

Explaining the decision to keep the app moderator-free, Mr. Woodward said, “One of the earlier versions of the app did have moderators, but the people testing the app felt constricted because of it. We are counting on the app’s feature which allows users to earn medals based on the quality of their answers to act as a measure of reliability.”

Mr. Woodward conceded that a lot of modifications were yet to be done. He said, “One feedback we've received from a lot of users is that they are constantly on the move and feel the need to know about what’s going on in several neighbourhoods at the same time. But we are still working on that. As of now, users can only be a part of one neighbourhood.”