It’s not everyday that you get to reveal a new company to the world for the first time. This is one of those cases. PlaceBook is run by former execs from Netflix, among other places, and is about to jump into the location-based service space occupied by Foursquare, SimpleGeo, Gowalla, Brightkite, Whrrl, Loopt, and a few others. You can learn more about the executive team on LinkedIn.
What is their philosophy? That privacy matters when it comes to location data.
Anyway, listen into CEO/founder Michael Rubin as he tells me what he’s seeing happen in location and gives me a first sneak peak at what they are doing.
Then sign up for their beta.
What are they doing? They will give you a variety of location-based services, arranged into metaphorical bookshelf. Applications like personal fitness, trip planning, scrapbooking, among other things. All apps will have a heavy location component. Will this be even cooler than Foursquare? It sure looks potentially that this company will get location at a level few others do. But I’ll let him introduce the company to you in his own words.
Scobleizer 
I just watched that whole video and I still have no idea what their product actually is. Kind of a useless interview, no?
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I dont know how many times I have to tell you. I dontcare what people who think getting movies IN THE MAIL think about technology. That goes double for people that invented sending movies IN THE MAIL.
As for the name jack, placebook? Wow. Guess someone was in a hurry.
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this entire comment stream is censored by a bunch of pussies who think their blog is cute.
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Kinda risky for them to be just two letters away from “Facebook” right? It's a great idea but I think it would be taken a lot more seriously if it wasn't named so similarly to the largest social network in history, not to mention the possibility of a lawsuit..
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They should’ve named it something original, like PlaceStation.
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I think, if they didn't use the exact same name for the service, they wouldn't get any chance to have lawsuit for it, and the name “Placebook” seems quite interesting to me for its own marketing purpose. 🙂
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This is definitely the interview of someone who has absolutely nothing to offer.
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Hey I have an idea…why dont we send out our location data…IN THE MAIL!Aging netflix hipsters please go away.
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indoorLBS.com conducted a study that these LBS services need more micro and indoor geolocation to be effective.
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What an awful, misleading name – Facebook is for sharing, Placebook, by default, is closed.Other than that, this is a great idea. Add in environmental sensors in smart phones, and it becomes even more powerful – I've added my thoughts here http://www.skyontech.com/blog/iphone-environmen… Personal health measuring, as well as city wide environmental hotspots, even terrorist threats.
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Not defending the name, but I don't think it's different than every “i” product released in the last 5 years… or “e” product before that…
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Agree. They have this nice, high level conversation but everytime he asks about the actual product, he waffles.
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Always a problem when the interviewer gets more talk time the than the person being interviewed. Let the guy talk and quit filling in his wrods. Out!
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I don't get what this product is about. are they consolidating location based data from various services?
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More accurate indoor geolocation is essential for checkin services and inbuilding m-commerce, etc. See available solutions at indoorLBS.com
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Its like other location based services and now i see there will be more services like seeing the success of foursquare etc
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