Interact with your Facebook Friends on Tagcrumbs with Facebook Connect

Just recently we wrote about our OpenID Integration, that allows you to create a Tagcrumbs account and sign into it without requiring another password.

The advantages are obvious, but many of you will have a Facebook account already. Instead of OpenID you can also use your Facebook account to create a new Tagcrumbs account or to log into your existing Tagcrumbs account, as we are officially supporting Facebook Connect.

Connecting your account with Facebook brings you two more benefits besides easy authentication...

Keep all your friends up to date

Each time you discover a great new place you will have the option to notify all your Facebook friends about it, directly on the Tagcrumbs website. Sharing an existing Tagcrumb with your Facebook friends is also possible. You will be able to add some additional details and post directly to your Facebook Stream:

Your Facebook friends will then be able to interact with your post by commenting or "liking" it:

Find your Facebook friends on Tagcrumbs and invite others

You can use Tagcrumbs to just remember places for yourself, but the real fun begins when you start to interact with your friends on Tagcrumbs. You can invite any of your Facebook friends to join Tagcrumbs:

And soon you can easily befriend all of your existing Facebook friends on Tagcrumbs. This saves you the hassle of finding and adding all the same friends again and you will be able to share stuff and see what your friends discovered on Tagcrumbs in no time!

Roundup

We are all heavy Facebook users and therefore very excited about Tagcrumbs & Facebook Connect, as we see Tagcrumbs as an extension to existing social networks like Facebook. The next version of Tagcrumbs, on which we are working currently, will have even better Facebook support.

And hey, if you are a Facebook user, you should become a fan of Tagcrumbs on Facebook!

Who do you trust to have the insider knowledge?

Exploring your neighborhood can be a hard task, especially in cities your surroundings with its local businesses, cafes, galleries and bars change frequently. So who do you trust what’s worth going to and where do you get your best recommendations from?

Looking from my balcony at the skyline of Berlin, I spotted a huge red balloon flying around 50 meters high and wondered what it is. It has been visible from far far away and had the shape of an arrow. Thus, the conclusion that it was highlighting a specific location, maybe for the World Championships in Athletics that take place these days.

This is definitely one of the most exciting ways to highlight an interesting place in your neighborhood. Normally brick-and-mortar businesses are having a hard time to market themselves and to reach their preferred audience. But also consumers are facing the problem to explore hidden gems, places that surprise and make you want to go there more often.

Tagcrumbs helps you to remember interesting and newsworthy places but more important it allows to send quick recommendations to friends on Tagcrumbs, on Facebook, on Twitter or to everyone with an e-mail address. We aim to simplify and accelerate the recommendation process, especially the one between circles of friends. Convince your friends to join Tagcrumbs and start watching your friends' activity streams and send personal recommendations. The more you share, the more you get back.
 
Because you hear most often about place recommendations while on the go, we are heavily working on different mobile services. Watch this blog to hear first about upcoming applications that focus on exactly what I just described, creating a recommendation flow that is mobile-targeted and that integrates well with existing communication tools like Twitter or Facebook.

How do you find out about interesting places around you? Yellow pages, local review sites, city magazines, advertisements or do you only trust your friends' tips and experiences? Let us know!

Tagcrumbs with a View

Recently I've been travelling through the Alps, starting from Stuttgart and making my way through Switzerland to arrive in Milano a couple of days later. On the way I enjoyed a couple of breathtaking views - snow-covered mountain ridges, tranquil lakes and picturesque villages.

Many people share this pleasure to look out; these places allow us to take in the beauties of our surroundings and, quite literally, help to change our perspective on things. On Tagcrumbs there are many great examples of memorable lookouts:

Agatha likes the view of the castle from Charles Bridge in Prague.

Richard describes a spectacular view from Knocknarea mountain: the Atlantic's waves breaking, deep bays extending inland and more mountains in the distance.

Moinho do Don Quixote in Portugal is one of Mariana's favorite places. A stunning ocean view and cozy atmosphere - and it's close to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost spot in Europe, pictured below.

Image credit goes to tuergeist.