Three SU graduates have helped to create an app they hope can allow people to tour the world and know about exactly where they are with the push of a button.

The free app, called CO Everywhere, launched Aug. 27. The app pulls up content from all over the world, displaying a variety of information including photos, tweets, events, reviews and local deals for any area the user chooses. A team of seven, including three SU graduates, created CO Everywhere.

Unlike some earlier apps that use location specific interactive media, CO Everywhere allows users to draw their own unique area of interest with their finger on a virtual map, said Tony Longo, CEO and co-founder.

CO Everywhere then pulls up information for that area, said Longo, who graduated from the School of Information Studies in 2001.

“The app is built on top of the world’s social content,” he said. “We only do one thing, but we do it really well— we help you define the geography.”

Within the first four days of the app’s release, CO Everywhere was downloaded thousands of times across 62 countries, Longo said.

The app pulls content from more than 1,400 sites every day, he said. Many of the sites are specific to certain areas of the globe and unfamiliar to Americans, he added.

Users can organize their content in four different ways: by events, deals from local businesses, social media interactions or all three combined and posted in reverse chronological order.

The app can also help students studying abroad familiarize themselves with locations in the country they’re studying in, Janelle Bridson, who works on CO Everywhere’s community team, said in an email.

The app is similar to Banjo, an application that allows users to view social media posts based on a defined location, said Carlos Caicedo Bastidas, an iSchool professor.

CO Everywhere takes it a step further by allowing users to specify a specific area to follow, said Caicedo, who teaches a class on mobile app design and development.

“That’s very innovative from my perspective,” he said.

Banjo is compatible with both Android and Apple devices, while CO Everywhere isn’t out for the Android yet. This significantly limits the number of users who can experience the benefits of this app, Caicedo said.

Longo, one of the app’s co-founders and CEO, said creating an Android version of the app is high on the CO Everywhere team’s priority list and should be released some time this fall.

In the meantime, he hopes the app can also connect people in real life as well. Dan Adams, a CO Everywhere co-founder and CTO, once told him how he’d always wanted to learn how to pickle different types of food. Through CO Everywhere, Adams noticed a post about making pickles by a neighbor he’d never met. Because of that post, Adams gained a cooking skill and a friend.

“I got the chills when he told me that,” Longo said. “That thousands of times over for all of the people around the world who are using this app; that’s incredibly powerful.”

Published on September 5, 2013 at 1:43 am

Contact Shannon: smhazlit@syr.edu