Popagandhi

GoThere
Going from here to there… now much easier

I don’t know how they built this, but GoThere.sg is awesome. Simply enter where you are “going from” and where you are “going to”, hit Go There, and they spit out accurate directions: pick public transport, or driving directions. The Google Maps integration works pretty well. If you move points A or B around on the map, directions get refreshed. I don’t drive so I’m not sure how well the driving directions work, but most of my friends who do love the option of avoiding ERP, and avoiding expressways. I’m impressed by how accurate the public transport directions are. They tell you exactly how long the journey takes, and how much the bus and train fares add up to. You can even embed maps into your websites like this:

(For a search from Harbourfront to Changi Airport Terminal 2)
The embedding feature is excellent for food bloggers, and also people holding parties or events.

Another feature people seem to like is Search. If you search for “steak” in “Ann Siang Hill” you get a list of such places. Results and listings can even be commented on and rated. I have a feeling it’s one of those features that will be insanely useful once they hit a certain mass of users, but with only the input of early adopters and users at the moment it’s already pretty good. Wonderful idea and implementation; I’m sure it will get even better. It’s one of those apps you never think about, but when they do pop up they help make life better and you wonder why it took so long, how you possibly did without — always the hallmark of a great app in the making.

WeGo
Travel search squirrels

I’ve mentioned WeGo.com several times in the past months. Since discovering it for my Europe quest I’ve been recommending it to friends and family and anyone who will listen. With a blazing fast site, excellent search, clear presentation of results with prices before and after tax and layover times for quick decision-making at a glance, a useful research section and a good deals page, it’s no wonder everyone loves it — or that I’m writing about it again.

I visited the WeGo.com squirrel den (i.e. the office) to say hi and had the good luck to meet Ross, Miguel and Chu Yeow — between them, the team probably has hundreds of years of experience in travel and the internet, in addition to being great travellers themselves. Always a good thing. Try them out for your next hotel or flight booking!

SharedCopy
seamless annotation and collaboration

I knew James a lifetime ago from the BloggerCon days and Tomorrow.SG days. His internets kungfuz is kinda scary. James has been working on SharedCopy with some talented young developers (Choon Keat and Zhenyi). It’s a tool for annotating and collaborating on websites, and also bookmarking, among other things: it’s received rave reviews from the likes of the Wall Street Journal Online, TechCrunch and LifeHacker, which squarely puts them in the big league. It’s easy to see why.

Just a few nights ago someone wrote to me asking for a critique of a website layout that wasn’t working. Normally that entails writing a long email with screenshots and Photoshop or Skitch open. These days with SharedCopy’s no-registration, no-install install, tasks like that are much simpler. It’s easy to explain to non-techies too. Right out of the box without registration you get most of the functionality of SharedCopy, but registered accounts get even more, including the Read Later function that could just go one up on Delicious.

Homespace and Rentspace
map based real estate search: apartment, rooms, condos

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Vin, the charming dude who wears many hats: not only is he the star behind the incomparable YouTube hit (a wonderful spoof of Coldplay’s Yellow - about.. you guessed it, Chinese people), he’s also a serial entrepreneur — fresh out of school (like me), too. With Homespace he changed the way many of us dealt with real estate online (mostly awful ads and annoying brokers). He’s been hard at work building a spinoff, Rentspace, with the hopes of revolutionizing the way we rent, whether it’s rooms, apartments, flats or condos. They haven’t gone live yet but here’s a teaser:

Be sure to sign up at RentSpace.sg if you’re in the market for rentals. I’m sure it’ll be great. Check out Homespace in the meantime.

Zopim
live support: free and works even when you’re not online

If you’ve dabbled in the running of businesses on the web you’ll know how annoying live chat software can be. They can be important, for certain types of businesses, and the last thing you want is piss off your potential customers with a buggy software that doesn’t really let either of you talk to each other properly. They usually cost money, and don’t work too well. Enter Zopim. It’s free, deploys with just a script, and has a set of well thought out features that I’m very excited about — including a feature that lets messages be forwarded to email and all major IM clients. You’d also be able to analyze visitor data and usage trends. I’ll be unfolding a few web projects over the coming year, and Zopim will probably play a part in some of them. Signup for a beta account now!