28dots, The Center'd Blog

The Dealmap's First National Sale Live Now Through Sunday - 30% Off Crocs

2010-10-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

Our sister site that focuses on local deals, The Dealmap, just launched a great sale with Crocs.

Now through Sunday, Oct. 24, 2010, you can get 30 percent off all Crocs products at any Crocs owned retail location. Check out The Dealmap to get the Crocs coupon or find a Crocs store near you.

Introducing The Dealmap

2010-05-11T06:14:00.000-07:00

We’ve added a big new feature to complement our local search and discovery tools. It’s so big, we created a new site for it - The Dealmap.

The Dealmap is the most comprehensive source for people to find and share the hottest local deals, all in one place. It aggregates the largest number of local deals on the Web, including offers from nearly 100 local daily deal sites, and makes previously hard-to-find deals available to people when and where they want them through its website, social applications, its daily email, and soon-to-come mobile apps.

The Dealmap already integrates consumer sentiment information from Center’d, and we’ll begin to integrate deal data into Center’d as well. Together, the combination of location, sentiment and pricing information available on our sites will help people make better local purchasing decisions.

Check out the press release and The Dealmap site.

Cheers,

The Center’d Team

Enhanced Driving Directions Page

2010-01-12T16:51:00.000-08:00

A couple months ago, we noticed a lot of people were using our driving directions page, so we decided to upgrade the design a bit to make it easier for people to get directions wherever they're heading in the U.S. We've also added functionality so that you can see restaurants near your destination or search for other places as well.

Cheers - The Center'd Team

Insequent Licenses Center’d Sentiment Analysis Data

2009-12-10T14:45:00.000-08:00

Insequent announced that they’ll be integrating our Sentiment Analysis data on their Biz411 product, which provides local businesses the ability to add a mobile element to their overall marketing effort. Since we’ve started analyzing conversations about local places, we’ve quickly grown our unique index and are now up to over 3 million U.S. places that have sentiment data and we’ve been receiving positive feedback from both consumers and partners. We’re excited to add Insequent to our growing roster of partners and look forward to sharing more news in the near future.

For more information on the deal, check out the press release.

Free Local Content & Monetization Tools for Publishers

2009-08-19T14:00:00.000-07:00

In addition to launching our new iPhone app yesterday, we also unveiled a new publisher program that enables sites small and large to add local content and monetization tools to their web presence.

We’ve created an easy-to-use and customizable widget that features local content based on our “Flavored Local” technology, so publishers can add things to do like top romantic restaurants or best kid-friendly attractions in any city to their site. It’s fully customizable – You choose the color scheme, as well as content from 6 interest categories including romantic, kid-friendly and more, and from 5 activity categories including restaurants, attractions, events, and more.

Anyone from small bloggers to large companies can use the widget, and if you participate in our paid publisher program you’ll also earn money from displaying the widget on your site.

Check out the widget and more information about the paid publisher program here.

Cheers,

The Center’d Team

P.S. – We also have APIs available for custom integrations of our data into your site. Give us a holler if you’re interested.

Center’d Launches “Flavored Local” iPhone App

2009-08-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

Today we rolled out a new iPhone app which uses our “Flavored Local” Technology to help people find nearby places and things to do. Now you can use your iPhone to search for places based on your interests including kid-friendly, romantic, outdoor, cheap, and more (just like you’ve been able to do the last couple months on our website).

Additionally, we’ve included the sentiment charts and style-category drill-downs from our place pages in the app, exposing an unparalleled amount of data about businesses in an easily digestible, summarized mobile format. These charts and comment “snippets” give you a quick read of what people think about a place without having to wade through long reviews on your iPhone.

Here’s the quick scoop on the features in our new app:

• Search and Browse: You can search for places in any U.S. city and filter results by popularity, distance, or interest styles, and browse things to do with more than 20 city guides.

• Aggregated and Summarized Place Data: The place profile pages in the app feature content that gives people a quick snapshot of a place. Sentiment charts capture whether people feel positive, neutral, or negative about a place and include “snippets” of the most frequently mentioned comments about things like service and menu items. You can also drill-down on each place’s style categories to understand why places qualify within a given interest.

• Integrated Maps: You can view multiple places from search and browse results on an embedded map, and pan and zoom the map to help find the right place and pinpoint where places are located without leaving the application.

• Easy Content Submission: Just like on our website, you can quickly submit content and information about places, including photos, short keywords that describe a place, and interest information about a place to help classify it.

• Planning and Sharing Tools: You can save places and combine them on a list, which you can then easily share with friends.

The app is free and is available on the App Store, or you can learn more about it here.

We’d love to hear what you think of the app, so drop us a line once you’ve had a chance to check it out.

Thanks!

The Center’d Team

Center'd Adds a City Guide for Phoenix, AZ

2009-08-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

The Center'd team just rolled out a Phoenix City Guide for visitors and locals alike. Whether you're looking for a way to spend the day outdoors in Phoenix, at an air conditioned shopping mall, or just have a good meal, this guide will give you good ideas and information on where to go and what to do. Here's a selection of what Phoenix has to offer:

Things to do in Phoenix

Phoenix attractions

Phoenix kid friendly attractions

Phoenix restaurants

Romantic restaurants in Phoenix

Kid friendly restaurants in Phoenix

We're working on getting these great guides out for more new cities, so be sure to check back to see what's new.

Cheers - The Center'd Team

New "Flavored Local" City Guide for Austin, TX

2009-07-28T13:26:00.000-07:00

We recently launched a new city guide for Austin, TX, where you can find things to do by that meet your needs. Take a peek at some of the links below to get a feel for the types of places you can find in the new city guide:

Things to do in Austin

Austin attractions

Austin kid friendly attractions

Austin restaurants

Romantic restaurants in Austin

Kid friendly restaurants in Austin

We're working on adding more cities all the time and we'll keep you posted when we do.

Cheers - The Center'd Team

City of Brotherly Love Gets Its Own City Guide

2009-07-22T15:45:00.000-07:00

Philadelphia is the latest metro to join our list of city guides with "flavored local" technology. Check out the sample links below to see what kind of things to do in Philadelphia you can find on this new city guide:

Philadelphia attractions

Kid friendly things to do in Philadelphia

Popular Philadelphia restaurants

Romantic restaurants in Philadelphia

Kid friendly restaurants in Philadelphia

Philadelphia shopping

Oh, and if you're wondering where to get a great Philly cheesesteak, give our recent blog post on the topic a read.

Staycation Officially Becomes a Word

2009-07-10T09:43:00.000-07:00

The staycation has been a popular trend during this decade, first after 9/11 due to security concerns, and recently due to the economic downturn. Today, it's become more than a slang term and trend as Merriam-Webster added staycation to its collegiate dictionary, defining it as "a vacation spent at home or nearby."

While spell-check prompts might not recognize it yet, we're glad to see this trend get its proper due. Since Center'd aims to help you plan life's activities and find things to do in your local area, we've long been fans of the staycation. In case you haven't checked them out yet, our new local city guides are a good resource for planning staycations and can help you find activities based on your intent, like romantic, outdoor, or kid-friendly.

Here's a sample of some of the cities we cover:

Boston things to do

Chicago things to do

Las Vegas things to do

Los Angeles things to do

New York things to do

Washington, DC things to do

And here are some examples of the types of category and activity intent information you can find in the city guides:

Washington, DC attractions

Romantic restaurants in New York

Cheap attractions in New York

Kid-friendly things to do in Chicago

You can check out the full list of metros we cover on our city guide overview page, and we'll keep you updated as we add new cities.

Cheers,

Dan

Things to Do by Style in The Big Easy

2009-07-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we rolled out another city guide, New Orleans, LA. Using our "flavored local" technology, here are some highlights of what you can find in the New Orleans city guide:

Popular New Orleans restaurants

Romantic restaurants in New Orleans

Top New Orleans attractions

Kid-friendly New Orleans attractions

Outdoor things to do in New Orleans

Also, make sure to catch our latest blog post highlighting some of the best soul food in New Orleans - It's guaranteed to make you hungry.

Center'd Featured on Daily Candy

2009-07-02T10:38:00.000-07:00

In case you don't already receive Daily Candy's emails, we wanted to share what they're saying about Center'd on their site today. (If you don't get their emails, check 'em out, they're quite good.)

The Daily Candy Kids Everywhere piece highlights our planning tools and school event planning center, noting our "planning tool saves time, paper, and sanity with online templates for school events. Coordinate and manage volunteers for everything from soccer games to fundraisers."

And that's not to mention the kid-friendly things to do you can also find on Center'd.

Check out the full Daily Candy post here.

Cheers - The Center'd Team.

Dallas Gets Its Own Texas-Sized City Guide

2009-06-29T13:07:00.000-07:00

Looking for things to do in Dallas? You can find them in our latest city guide, published this past weekend. Here's a sampling of things you can find in the new city guide for Dallas:

Popular Dallas restaurants

Romantic restaurants in Dallas

Dallas attractions

Kid-friendly Dallas attractions

Cheap things to do in Dallas

You can also check out the article from our Things to do Blog on sports bars in Dallas to get the scoop on good places to catch your favorite Texas team when they're away from home.

New Miami, FL City Guide

2009-06-15T11:18:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we launched another city guide - the latest addition to our growing list is Miami, FL. If you’re looking for things to do in Miami (and who isn't?), check it out. Here are some examples of what you can find in the new Miami city guide:

Things to do in Miami

Popular Restaurants in Miami

Top Miami Attractions

Kid-friendly things to do in Miami

Outdoor things to do in Miami

We hope you enjoy the new guide, and drop us a line if you have any feedback.

Cheers,

The Center’d Team

Charlotte, NC City Guide Released

2009-05-29T11:30:00.000-07:00

We just released a city guide for Charlotte, NC, where you can find things to do with our “flavored local” technology. Charlotte joins 15 other city guides that help people discover local attractions, events, and places based on intent styles such as romantic, kid friendly, and cheap, to name a few. Check out some of these examples of things to do to get a feel for what Charlotte has to offer:

Things to do in Charlotte

Romantic Restaurants in Charlotte

Top Charlotte Attractions

Kid-friendly things to do in Charlotte

Outdoor things to do in Charlotte

We look forward to releasing more city guides soon, but in the meantime, feel free to send us feedback on what you think about our current city pages.

Cheers,

The Center’d Team

Center'd CEO Named to Silicon Valley Business Journal's "40 Under 40"

2009-05-28T16:24:00.000-07:00

Our own Jennifer Dulski recently made the annual "40 Under 40" list published by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. According to the Journal, they looked for people "who were not only successful in their professional lives but gave back to the community in their personal lives."

The Journal article highlights Jennifer's leadership at Center'd and our mission to help people find things to do based on intent, as well as her contributions to the community which include founding an educational non-profit in Pittsburgh, PA.

The full piece on Jennifer can be viewed on the Business Journal's site.

New City Guide for Berkeley, California

2009-05-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

We recently rolled out our new Berkeley, CA city guide, and like our other city guides you can browse things to do in 5 categories, including restaurants, attractions, shopping, events and movies, across 6 intent styles, such as outdoor, kid-friendly, romantic, and more. Here are some examples to check out:

Things to do in Berkeley
Popular Berkeley restaurants
Romantic restaurants in Berkeley
Top Berkeley attractions
Kid-friendly things to do in Berkeley
Cheap things to do in Berkeley

We’ve been getting great feedback on our new city pages and intent style classification (geeksugar just listed us first on their list of “10 Wonderful Websites for the Weekend”) and would love to hear what you think – drop us a line when you have chance, and good luck planning your next weekend activity.

Cheers,

The Center'd Team

Adding some flavor to local search

2009-04-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

Today we announced some major feature updates to Center’d as well as a new look and feel, much of it based on your feedback. People who have been using our group collaboration tools told us that they wanted better and quicker ways to make personal plans as well, so we’ve added functionality to address this need.

We call this new approach to local search and personal planning “flavored local.” Underpinning all the new features is a unique database we’ve created that classifies places by “intent.” This classification allows us to present data about places and things to do in some pretty cool ways. The end result is that you can quickly find places that meet your needs, like kid-friendly things to do in San Francisco, and get more relevant results than typical keyword searches.

One of our favorite new intent styles is the cheap category, or as we call it, the “recession buster.” Just in time to help tighten our belts and ride out the down economy, we’ve classified cheap places and things to do to help save you some money. Here’s an example of cheap things to do in Seattle that includes free places like the Frey Art Museum and inexpensive ones like Seattle Museum, The Mysteries.

To take advantage of this new technology, we’ve updated our site design and functionality in a number of areas:

• New search results: In addition to the ability to filter search results by your connections, you can now filter them by activity style. Check out this example for dining in New York City, and then choose another style from the pull-down to filter your results and get kid-friendly restaurants in New York (they really do exist!).

• New city guides: We’ve created new city pages where you can browse places by category and intent style, and we’ve added some editorial content about local things to do from bloggers with local knowledge. We launched with the following 12 cities, and will be adding more soon:

Atlanta things to do

Boston things to do

Chicago things to do

Houston things to do

Las Vegas things to do

Los Angeles things to do

New York things to do

Palo Alto things to do

San Diego things to do

San Francisco things to do

Seattle things to do

Washington DC things to do

• Redesigned home page: The new home page highlights the enhanced functionality and makes it easy to pick a city, a style (e.g., romantic) and type of activity (e.g., restaurants), and get relevant search results (romantic restaurants in San Francisco for example).

We hope you enjoy these new features and we’ll keep you posted as we add more city guides. As always, please tell us what you think by sending us feedback.

Cheers,

The Center’d Team

Ask and Ye Shall Receive - Recent Planning Enhancements

2009-03-27T10:59:00.000-07:00

The past couple of months, we’ve heard a number of similar feature requests from people who have been using our planning tools. We endeavor to be good listeners, so the team took this feedback to heart and made some new product enhancements that will make planning activities and events even easier.

First, we’ve added the ability to save invite lists so you don’t have to send the invitations immediately and can come back to complete the list at your convenience. This eliminates the need to organize your entire invite list in one sitting, and allows you to build it over time. To see this feature, just click the “Save for later” button after you’ve added some guests. Complementing this feature, we now save people you invite to events (for your eyes only) so you can invite them to future activities without having to look up their email address. Click the “Pick emails from past invitations” option when inviting people to use this feature.

Next, plan organizers can now preview invites, so you can see what the invite looks look like before you actually send it out. No more “taking our word for it” - you’ll know exactly how your invite will appear to guests. To view your invitation, click on the “Preview invite” link when inviting people to your next event.

Finally, for people who use our sign-up sheets to manage volunteers, we’ve streamlined the overall process so it’s quicker and improved the drag-and-drop functionality so it’s easier to manage and edit tasks. Click “Add tasks” from your event detail page to check it out.

Thanks to everyone for the great feedback and keep it coming! If you have ideas or suggestions to help make our product better, please drop a note to us.

Cheers,

The Center’d Team

Recession Trend: Potlucks Making a Comeback

2009-03-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

With all the economic uncertainty swirling around, it’s not surprising that people are cutting back on spending. These days, the financial burden of picking up the tab for a cocktail or dinner party can be too daunting for even the most social hosts. In times like this, however, we believe it’s even more important that people maintain close connections to their support networks of friends, families and neighbors.

That’s why we’re interested to see an old social tradition, the potluck, making a popular resurgence. Although the potluck dates back centuries, today it’s become an affordable way for friends and family to socialize, and a great money saving solution that distributes costs evenly so you don’t get stuck footing the entire bill for a party.

Media outlets are just starting to pick up on this trend – In a recent broadcast of NPR’s All Things Considered, host Debbie Elliott noted that potluck dinners are indeed becoming fashionable again – and our data reveals that people have recognized the money saving potential of potlucks for months now. Since last November, potlucks have accounted for more than one out of every three plans people have made on Center’d using our templates.

In a modern update of the tradition, people are even putting a creative spin on these events by hosting tacolucks or pizzalucks, where everyone brings ingredients for making a themed main course like tacos instead of bringing separate dishes.

Of course, while potlucks may ease people’s financial burden by distributing costs, the logistics of pulling one off may still deter many. You can avoid organizational pitfalls by using our potluck sign-up sheet to easily coordinate who brings what dishes (or ingredients), send invites and track RSVPs.

Have any great potluck ideas, recipes or trends you want to share? Leave a comment here to let us know!

Cheers,

The Center’d Team

[Photo by miikkahoo]

A New President and New Hope

2009-01-21T11:01:00.000-08:00

Today is a momentous day and it’s in the air everywhere. Here at Center’d we took the morning to watch the inauguration so we could take it all in… so we could be a part of it… and so we could each think about how we can do more. I had a lump in my throat watching the enormous crowd of people there in person, flags waving, with renewed hope and sense of purpose. That millions of people traveled so many miles, to stand for hours in the cold, to stand miles away from the event — it is a real testament to how much people believe this is a moment that will change the course we are on. This is a moment we need to increase our own participation in our democracy and as now President Obama said, “choose unity of purpose over conflict and discord.”

A big part of the message of today is that together, we can make a difference and bring real change. This is an inspiring challenge. As a company and as individuals, we are thinking about how we can do our part. Our mission is to help people more easily plan “all of life’s activities” and we are optimistic on this day and moving forward that our “life’s activities” and yours will include even more activism and public service.

Thanks for all the things you’ve done already to help make this world a better place and for the things that you will do in the years to come. We’ve been thinking about how each of us can make a difference, even by doing small things, and here are some of the things that we pledge:

Chandu - I pledge to work on things that matter the most.

Jennifer - I pledge to find ways, big and small, to help others in my every day life.

Kalyan - I pledge to learn something new every week and stop using plastic bags at the grocery store.

Kate - I pledge to practice more patience and tolerance with everyone - near and far, including myself!

Luce - I pledge to be more patient.

Navin - I pledge to work even harder and do my share for the disadvantaged children in the poorer parts of the world so that they can dream bigger, and realize their god given potential.

Shirl - I pledge to be more ready, willing and able to those close to me.

Check out this great video on myspace of some celebrities you know making their own personal pledges and leave comments here to let us know what you’ll pledge.

It’s an inspirational day. What are you inspired to do?

Jennifer Dulski

CEO & Co-Founder, Center’d

www.twitter.com/jdulski

New Tools to Help Plan & Coordinate School Events

2009-01-15T11:03:00.000-08:00

We’ve hit the ground running in 2009 and today released a new school event planning center, just in time for people to use for upcoming fundraisers and auctions (who doesn’t have one of these coming up…?).

Whatever type of school activity or event you’re planning, we’re here to help and hopefully make the whole process a lot easier. This new planning resource includes quick-start planning templates that you can easily copy and customize to meet your needs, as well as enhanced sign-up sheet functionality that makes it easier for organizers to manage and coordinate volunteers. Check out a few of the new templates:

Preschool parent volunteers

Parent teacher conference

Once again, thanks again to all the people who have been using our planning tools and sent us the great suggestions that helped with this new product. Take a look at our new school event planning center and templates, and tell us what you think.

Cheers – The Center’d Team

P.S. If you need help getting started or have any questions, shoot our resident school planning expert Kate an email.

Happy Holidays from Center’d

2008-12-15T11:08:00.000-08:00

As 2008 comes to a close, we have many great memories to reflect on and celebrate. None of these would have been possible without the passionate people who have been using our site, so we’d like to sincerely thank all of you and wish you a great holiday season.

This past year we achieved a number of milestones, including our public launch in June, a back-to-school product release in August, and many enhancements to our planning tools which we’ll cover in a later post. Despite all we’ve accomplished in 2008, we’re even more excited about what we have in store for 2009 and look forward to continuing to make it easier for people to plan any type of activity or event.

To celebrate and cap off the past year, we had our second annual team holiday volunteer day (and a few beers afterwards). This year, we chose to help out Sunnyvale Volunteer Services with their Christmas Center which provides families a two-week supply of food, new gifts for infants through teens, and a gift for every household. This was especially rewarding this year given the impact that the current economic crisis is having on families. As SVC says, “Our business is booming, and that’s not good.” If you live in the area, you can check out other volunteer opportunities on their website.

We hope you’ve enjoyed many fun-filled activities and events this past year (many planned on Center’d we trust…), and we look forward to helping you plan many more great ones next year.

Cheers & Happy New Year!

The Center’d Team

International Volunteer Day

2008-12-06T11:09:00.000-08:00

Today is near and dear to our team’s hearts as it marks a time to raise awareness of worthy causes and organizations and to give recognition and thanks to volunteers who help make our local and worldwide communities a better place. International Volunteer Day is especially relevant this year as the looming economic crisis will disproportionately affect those people who are in need. So if you have some free time and extra good-will, we encourage you to share it with one of your favorite causes.

Below is a list of some of our team’s favorite organizations and some thoughts on what they mean to us. Perhaps these can be a little thought-starter if you’re looking for ways to contribute to your community. Leave comments to let us know what some of your favorite causes are too!

Shirl: An important cause for my family is Glide’s work with the less fortunate. Glide is an all-inclusive charitable organization based in San Francisco, CA. Among the great work they do is Holiday Serve-A-Meal, where volunteers provide meals for those in need during the holidays. It means a lot for my family to be able to others and do our part to prevent people from going hungry during this season.

Kalyan: I think every child deserves a fair chance to live and lead a happy life. ChildFund International is an excellent organization that can collect funds from donors and help children in need with food, clothing, shelter and education. They also give you information on who is benefitting from your donations. Finally, they have incredible study tours where you can learn more about the children and communities involved and see how CFI makes a difference for them. [Editor’s note: Center’d does not have any official religious affiliations]

Navin: Save the Children is a group that is focused on helping children in countries all around the world gain access to primary education. Most of these children are unable to go to school as their parents are not able to afford the education or the associated expenses such as school uniforms or daily meals. You can make one-time donations, or monthly support for one child at a time. Our family has been involved in the monthly support option for many years. They also have volunteer opportunities both in the United States and abroad.

Dan: I first learned about Project Open Hand at my first job, where our office had a weekly meal delivery route that we “owned.” Each week, two volunteers would swing by the organization’s kitchen to pick up food, and then hand-deliver them to people in need throughout San Francisco. Through its network of volunteers, Project Open Hand provides “meals with love” for people living with HIV/AIDS, the homebound/critically ill, and seniors. By providing food and nourishment to help people meet their nutritional needs, Project Open Hand improves the quality of life for those it serves. I was personally touched by the strength and courage, as well kindness and thankfulness, displayed by the people on my route, and it was very rewarding to know that I was helping make their day a little brighter. Sadly, It’s been a while since I volunteered at Project Open Hand, but just reflecting on my past experience before this International Volunteer Day has motivated me to get back in the game. Project Open Hand has a number of volunteer opportunities for both individuals and organizations, including meal delivery, kitchen prep, and food shopping.

Kate: I got involved with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in 1999 after my dad died (from an accident, not lymphoma) and my uncle (his brother) was struggling with Lymphoma (my grandmother also died of lymphoma). I ran the London Marathon (a race my dad had wanted to run but never got the chance) in 2000 after training with and raising money for this powerful organization. My uncle lost his battle in 2001 but great research and progress continues to be done (and lots of marathons run!). I continue to support this cause through donations and through encouraging friends who train for marathons/triathalons and raise money through Team In Training.

Jennifer: Breakthrough Silicon Valley is a summer and after-school academic enrichment program that is part of a national collaborative of 30+ sites. It uses a unique “students teaching students” model, where high school and college students teach middle school students. This prepares under-served middle school students to be the first in their families to go to college and gets high school and college students excited about careers in education. I have seen the dramatic changes that happen in kids that go through this program. For the first time they not only believe they have a future, but also understand how to make it happen. As a former Breakthrough teacher & director and now a Breakthrough board member, the program has had an enormous impact on me personally as well. The best ways to get involved with Breakthrough are to donate money or materials, or to recommend students or teachers for the program.

Luce: I think it’s human nature to want to express your thoughts and feelings, and if you have certain disabilities, sometimes the best way to communicate is through art. Creative Growth Art Center serves artist with developmental, mental and physical disabilities, providing a stimulating environment with artistic instruction, gallery promotion, and the opportunity for personal expression. I’ve volunteered my time there during the studio sessions as well as taking care of office duties. It has been incredibly rewarding for me, especially as a member of the audience for their art. I am able to gain insight into their experiences and see glimpses of their world. There are a few different ways to support the artists and the organization itself. You can attend an exhibition and buy an original piece of art, or buy pieces from their online shop. You can donate to the organization and become a member. You can also volunteer your time on-site.

Let us know what some of your favorite causes are and try out using our planning tools to set up volunteer sign-up sheets for your favorite organizations. Or, become a fan of your favorite volunteer organization on Center’d (e.g., Project Open Hand), which will help their ranking in our search results when people are looking for volunteer opportunities in that area.

From the Center’d team to all those volunteers out there, thanks and keep up the great work!

Center'd on the Holidays

2008-12-01T18:43:00.000-08:00

Hey, we’re smack dab in the midst of the holiday season! The weather here at Center’d HQ has dipped all the way to a practically arctic 60°F, and I hear some parts of the country have gotten even colder!

Aside from the need to get the light windbreaker out of storage, there are many hallmarks of the holiday season, and a big one is planning. Gathering with friends and family, traveling to your hometown, holiday parties, shopping trips, plays and parades, these are all things that make this time of year special. And challenging.

But we’re here to help, and we bear gifts. Check out Center’d on the Holidays, our new planning center designed to help you spend less time planning and more time enjoying the season. We have ready-made plans to handle everything from holiday dinners to shopping wishlists. We have holiday events from across the country that you can easily convert to plans and send invitations to your friends. We have all that and more, tied up in a nice little package with a bow and everything! Take a look, we think you’ll find something that will help you get the most out of your holiday season.

From all of us at Center’d, we hope your holidays are merry and bright.

Get out the vote!

2008-11-25T11:11:00.000-08:00

First, I want to thank you. You helped Center'd make it into the first round of voting for Mashable's Open Web Awards. It is a huge honor to be included in a list of some fanastic sites, and you are the reason for that.

Second, while it is an honor to be nominated, winning would be pretty nice as well. So if have used Center'd and found it helpful, please take a moment to vote for us using the widget above. And of course, if you have used Center'd and didn't find it helpful or found things we could improve, never hesitate to let us know. We are constantly working to make the experience of using Center'd delightful, and your input is absolutely key to making that happen.

Third, soon we will be launching our Holiday Center. In the spirit of our Thanksgiving Center with Real Simple, our Holiday Center will be packed full of tools and tips to help you pull off a memorable holiday season. Stay tuned...

Thank you for your continued attention and support. Now go vote early and often!

Center'd on Thanksgiving

2008-11-13T12:41:00.000-08:00

It can’t be November already, can it? Sure enough, there is a chill in the air, it is dark by 5:30pm, Starbucks coffee cups are red, and the grocery store is playing a Muzak version of ‘Holly Jolly Christmas’.

Even though some are looking ahead to the December holidays, we want to make sure we spend time on a very important November holiday. And, being focused on ‘people, places and plans’, Thanksgiving holds a special meaning for us. Few holidays can be as stressful or as rewarding, and the difference between the two often comes down to two things: Planning ahead, and keeping it simple.

That brings us to Center'd on Thanksgiving, a collection of tips and tools designed to help simplify this holiday. Working with Real Simple, we combined their ideas with our planning tools to give you a site that can help you spend less time stressing about Thanksgiving and more time being with those important to you. Oh, and we didn’t forget about those other Thanksgiving rituals. We’ve got you covered for ‘Black Friday’ shopping and a weekend of football as well. Take a look and let us know what you think.

Of course, we would be remiss if we didn’t use this opportunity to express our thanks to each of you. Center’d would be nothing without your attention, your involvement, and your feedback. Thank you for that, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Nominate Center'd for Mashable Open Web Awards!

2008-11-11T14:27:00.001-08:00

This morning I came across an interesting poll from Mashable re: open web awards and thought it would be cool to nominate Center'd in "Places and Events" category. Here is a blurb from Mashable regarding this poll:

Open Web Awards is the only multilingual international online voting competition that covers major innovations in web technology. Through an online nominating and voting process, the Open Web Awards recognizes and honors the to
p achievements in 26 categories. This year, weíre partnering with over 100 blog partners, Poll Daddy for extra security and ease of voting and extending the nominations period and voting rounds for greater participation.

So, if you are a Center'd user and if you like what we do with the cool integration of local, social and activity planning - pl. submit your nomination.

And if you haven't been using Center'd - give it a try or if you don't like something you see on our site, let us know at feedback@centerd.com or just email me at chandu@centerd.com.

Thanks in advance for your help! :)

Chandu Thota, Co-Founder & CTO

A Diversified Portfolio of Unforgettable Memories...

2008-11-05T19:26:00.000-08:00

Last week I was speaking on a panel at the Association of Directory Marketers conference. One of the speakers at the conference was Daniel Burrus, a futurist, who I had heard speak once before at the Yahoo! Sales Conference a few years ago. He spoke about a variety of interesting topics, but the one he closed with piqued my interest the most. He talked about how when he thought about his life, that while building wealth may be important to some, he wanted to be sure he built a "diversified portfolio of unforgettable memories." That is a philosophy I subscribe to wholeheartedly and one I hope I can live by.

People who know me well know that my first job out of college was teaching and running a non-profit for kids (more on that another day). Given such a meaningful start to my career, I sometimes have these moments where I wonder if what I am doing now is making a big enough difference. When I heard Dan Burrus' talk it reinforced for me that what we are doing at Center'd, by making it easier for people to plan "all of life's activities", is helping people create more memories for their most valuable portfolio.

When I think about my life, I am very proud of the work I've done at various companies - proud of the impact and results I have driven and of the amazing teams I have been lucky to lead. Yet, it is the moments with friends and family, from vacations to volunteering, from picnics to parades and from big events to just spending time together, that have built my precious portfolio of memories.

Here are a few activities I have planned on Center'd so far that have helped me create new moments to remember with friends and family:

A family getaway in the Gold Country. Try the City Hotel the Fallon Theater and the Hidden Treasure Gold Mine where you can really pan for gold.
A girls weekend in Sonoma. We rented a house and went to some great places together. My favorites were the Sonoma Cheese Factory (great for picnic food) and El Dorado Kitchen (Known as "Ed K"), the restaurant at the El Dorado Hotel.
A team outing to the Giant's Game. Nothing like a sunny day at AT&T Park.
Our school's fall picnic. We signed up nearly 50 volunteers in less than a week and everyone had such a fun time.

And here are a couple more memories in the making - plans that are in progress:

Family Reunion in Washington DC. People are voting on dates that work and their top 4 places to visit. So far the leading vote getter is the Smithsonian American Art Museum. (Do we sound like a boring crowd?!)
Getting friends together to see the "Twas the Night Before Christmas" ballet over the holidays

We're hoping Center'd can help you more easily plan all kinds of activities with the people that matter to you. Wishing you all an overflowing bounty of unforgettable memories.

Jennifer Dulski
Co-Founder & CEO

2008-11-03T18:53:00.000-08:00

Center’d on All Hallows Eve

2008-10-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, it is only a few days until Halloween. Since we haven’t given you any specific advice on how to pull off the perfect Halloween get together, my assumption is that you are aimlessly wandering the streets asking random passers-by for ideas. Let’s fix that. For this installment, we have 2 quick tips plus a special bonus tip to help make sure this Halloween is safe, well-planned, and includes Jedi Knight dogs:

The gathering: This is our specialty. Center’d Halloween Tip 1: Use our tools. You can get input on where and when to meet, and make sure you have all your bases covered using our volunteer planning tools. Check out this ready-made plan, which shows how in just a few minutes you can orchestrate all the necessary components for a flawless spooktacular. Not up for a spooktacular? How about a fright-fest? We can do those too. And now you can just copy the plan, adjust it to meet your needs, and you are good to go! Take a look.

Let’s be safe out there: As with most things, a little forethought can really help ensure this holiday is an incident-free hootenanny, especially the little ghosts and goblins and Doras and Diegos. Center’d Halloween Tip 2: Play it safe. There are plenty of great Halloween safety resources online. One of the most thorough is courtesy of the Los Angeles Fire Department. Take a moment to check it out.

Got any tips, costumes, stories, or ideas to share? Let us know in the comments below.

Oh, and one bonus tip. I am usually seriously against putting clothing on dogs. However, if you are lucky enough to have two dogs, do this. Do it now.

I mean, seriously, right?

Happy Halloween from all of us at Center’d!

Football Fever...

2008-10-09T15:51:00.000-07:00

A recent trip to Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, CA reminded me of another reason why I like football season so much. Besides the obvious competitive drama and excitement of the games, it’s a good time to catch up with friends, many of whom you may have not seen in a while.

In the past, I’ve found coordinating pre-game festivities a bit difficult, so I’ve been hesitant to take the lead on organizing such gatherings. Sound familiar? Well, here’s where Center’d can help out. Whether you’re planning a tailgate at an NFL stadium or hosting a potluck at your house with fellow fans, our planning tools can help make it easy. Here’s how:

Choosing a game: Instead of touching off an email storm trying to figure out what home game the most people can attend, try setting up a time-poll so your friends can vote on the best date. Just click “put it to a vote” when building your plan. See a sample plan with a time poll.
Picking a place: This comes in handy if you’re trying to get consensus on where to meet for some suds before the game, or to figure out which sports bar works best to watch an away game. Click on “put it to a vote” when making your plan and select several of your favorite establishments to poll guests on which place works best for them. See a sample plan with a place poll.
Who’s bringing what: Whether you’re tailgating or hosting a football party at home, you don’t want to be left without any guacamole. (Or at least I don’t). Avoid this unfortunate situation by creating tasks that people can volunteer to complete, such as bringing appetizers. See a sample plan with a task list.

Here’s to enjoying some great plans this football season.

Go Bears!

Dan Visnick

Staying up late on a school night

2008-08-21T14:56:00.000-07:00

Some early birds were already singing as the sun began to rise over our fair valley this morning. How do we know? Because folks on our team were still up from the night before, putting the finishing touches on our latest release before pushing the button at around 5am. These enhancements were in direct response to the feedback we have received from many of you, so please keep that coming. I assure you, every email is read and every phone call is taken!

So, what’s in this goodie bag? The school year is knocking on our doors, bringing with it a lot of opportunities to make plans. Personally, school planning has always been hectic with afterschool activities to coordinate, lots of things to volunteer for (mainly on paper signup sheets or emails flying back and forth), and those last minute freakouts when I forget I volunteered to help with something. The lack of tools to make this tolerable (forget about delightful) is something we wanted to address with this launch. It is with that that I am excited to tell you about our new updates.

First, we improved our volunteer sign-up tools so you can more easily recruit and manage volunteers, whether it is for an entire school year, a single organization event, or just a small get together. If you give us the list, we’ll take care of the rest. The tasks can recur however you like (every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday for 4 months? No problem). We’ll keep everyone on the same page by sending reminders and alerts. Sure, people may still need to back out, and if they do, we’ll let you know immediately and help you communicate with everyone to get someone to step up in their place. Ready to give it a shot? You can start making plans here. Not quite ready? You can learn more here.

We also made some improvements to our local search to help you find the right places and service providers for whatever you might be looking for at this time of year (for our family, it was an orthodontist). Our search now combines aggregate ratings from across the web with the information and tags you and your friends have made on Center’d to provide even more relevant results. If you are a Center’d member, do a search and you will see higher rankings for the places you and your friends have saved. Want to make the results even better? Save and tag the places you like. I have saved everything from our pediatrician to our favorite car wash to help other people more easily find things they might like too. Give it a shot by connecting to a Center’d team member, and check out some of the places we like.

Finally, we redid our home page to make it a bit easier to use, and added a back to school resource center to help you get ready for the big day. It includes some of our tips for taking the stress out of this season, back to school gear that we like, other sites that have proven to be helpful resources for us, and a sampling of back to school-related plans to give you a head start there. Check it out, and let us know what you think!

Thank you for all the support and feedback you have given us since our launch. Even though we are just getting started, we know we wouldn’t have made it this far without your help.

Jennifer Dulski
Co-founder and CEO

Who's up for some 'tag name' in 'location name'?

2008-08-07T19:08:00.000-07:00

So, it has been a while since my last blog post and a whirlwind since our launch. It is so exciting to see people using the site from all over the U.S. and actually all over the world! Thanks to all of you who have been making plans, saving and tagging places and sending us feedback. It is wonderful to hear that the product is useful and helpful to hear what you think we should add and/or improve. We're working hard every day to make you all happy. : ) We divide up the duties of replying to customer emails and that is one of my favorite things to do. It's always great to correspond with real people using Center'd so please keep the emails (and even phone calls) coming.

People from all 50 states and many other countries have been using Center'd to search, explore and make local plans. Plans have been created for everything from family reunions and festivals to group trips and carpools and some people have just "done lunch." The tags you have been using on places are also creating some really useful searches, including some that are usually harder to get good results for on typical local search engines. Here are a few of our favorites you can try, including some we've tagged ourselves:

- brunch in San Francisco , CA
- kid friendly in Pittsburgh, PA
- late night in New York, NY
- girls weekend in Napa, CA
- birthday party in Palo Alto, CA

You can try putting some custom tags on places yourself and watching them show up real time in our search results when you search 'tag name' in 'location name.' Together we can make a really powerful local search that can help find just the places you are looking for and then help you plan something at those places.

PS - If you registered for Center'd from outside the U.S. you can now edit your country of origin on your profile page. (That has been fixed for several weeks, but wanted to make sure we mentioned it.)

Thanks!

Center'd gets Scobleized...

2008-07-17T13:41:00.000-07:00

I wanted to follow up on Dan's last post regarding Center'd in the news. While I am not familiar with this 'newspaper' he speaks of, there was another notable moment in the electronic news for us. A couple of weeks ago our founders, Jennifer and Chandu, made the trip out to beautiful Half Moon Bay, CA to meet up with Robert Scoble of Scobleizer fame.

If you've followed Robert, you know that wherever he is, his Nokia N95 is nearby, ready to take some video. Such was the case that day, and the result was a great in-depth conversation around the vision of Center'd, the challenges we are solving, and what's up with the apostrophe in our name. In fact, the conversation was so in-depth, it killed the battery on his trusty phone.

Some of the highlights have been put together into the video below. Check it out, and let us know what you think in the comments. If you'd like to see the full video (right up to the phone dying), you can see it here on Robert's FastCompany.tv site. Many thanks to Robert for the chance to chat about Center'd and our vision for what local planning can be.

Shea Knight
Experiencifier

Center'd Gets Scobleized! from Center'd on Vimeo.

Center'd in the News

2008-07-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

I enjoy relaxing on my couch Sunday mornings with a cup of coffee and the newspaper, often the electronic version, so I was excited to find a story about my own company during yesterday’s routine. In case you didn’t catch it, the San Jose Mercury News ran a story about vertical search trends in Sunday’s business section that featured Center’d. Yesterday’s piece got us thinking that we should share some of the other articles written about Center’d since our launch in case people are interested in reading them. The coverage has ranged from print dailies like the Mercury News, to technology bloggers such as Erick Schonfeld at TechCrunch, to lifestyle writers including Erin Kane for Real Simple. Michelle Lentz from bub.blicio.us actually put us in a head-to-head test against some other sites and Center’d came out on top (whew!), and others including Beverly at 1-2-3... Get Organized, and Susan at One Stop Mom have highlighted the time-saving features they find useful.

If you’re interested in reading more coverage about Center’d you can find it in these blog search results.

Dan Visnick

Getting Center'd in San Diego

2008-06-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a week. A mere seven days ago, we launched the first draft of Center'd to the world. From the moment the the button was pushed, the feedback was a tidal wave that filled our email boxes. Thank you so much for that. Rest assured, we haven't slowed down for a second. We have deployed changes to the site daily since launch, taking your feedback and making the experience better. Please do keep it coming.

But that wasn't all we did last week. The day after launching, half of our small but scrappy team packed up and flew down the coast to San Diego for the 112th National PTA Convention. We spent the next five days talking to PTA members from around the country, showing them how Center'd can make planning easier for them. We made plans for schools from Delaware to Iowa to California and everywhere in between.

The PTA vision is 'To make every child's potential a reality'. To meet hundreds of people who work daily towards this goal was incredible. And to see their eyes light up as they learned how our site can help them towards their vision? Well, it is hard to find the words for that. From fundraisers to educational trips, hearing about the different uses for our site definitely made all the sleepless nights worthwhile. We can't wait to hear the stories of successful plans being created and managed on Center'd.

Our theme for the show was "What Plans Are In Your Future?". We wanted to provide a little entertainment for our PTA guests, so we had palm, numerology/astrology, and tarot card readings for all who came. For those who didn't have time to wait in line, we provided 'fortunes to go' in the form of custom fortune cookies. (For those of you who couldn't make it, we'll be presenting the fortunes on Twitter over the next few days, so go take a gander.)

We had a fantastic time taking our first draft for a public spin and getting to spend time with our neighbors. Thank you to the members of the PTA for making us feel so welcome, thank you to our crew holding down the fort at Center'd HQ, and thank you to all of you for the support and feedback you have given us over the past seven days.

Now on to week two!

Shea Knight
Experiencifier

Center'd and Firefox 3

2008-06-18T18:36:00.000-07:00

We have been looking at the feedback that is coming in (and thanks for all that btw) - and one thing is clear - we are not working well on Firefox 3 browser at the moment. But we are working on a couple of fixes that we will be rolling out tonight that will take care of these issues. Please stay tuned and our sincere apologies from the Center'd team for the inconvenience caused by this.

Update @ 06/19/2008 12:33 AM : We have fixed the Firefox 3 bugs- please let us know if you are still seeing any issues!

Thanks,
Chandu Thota

We are live!

2008-06-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, we are still busy doing the last minute checks, but we are officially live! :) You can start using our product for searching, exploring and planning, even without signing up, but if you want to get the full benefits, sign-up here!

The coverage is coming in as we speak, you can check it out here and here. Will write a more detailed post very soon with specifics on our features. We are all very excited to bring you the fruits of our labor and would love to hear your thoughts, feedback and comments!

Cheers,
Chandu Thota
Co-Founder/CTO
http://www.centerd.com

Planning Rites of Spring

2008-06-10T13:15:00.000-07:00

As spring comes to a close and schools let out for summer, many families and their friends are participating in an annual tradition, the spring school event. End of year classroom parties, school picnics, performances, potlucks... You name it and parents everywhere are planning it. In fact, a group of people in our own backyard decided to put Center’d to the test and recently planned a school picnic for 200 families using our product. You can see how we fared in this recent Palo Alto Weekly article which chronicled the experience and highlights how Center’d made coordinating a complex event easier.

Dan Visnick
Marketing guy

People Connected through Places

2008-05-19T16:03:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I was so excited to come start Center’d with Chandu and the whole team here is that we all share a core belief – that people are connected through places. Whether it is attending the same school, living in the same neighborhood, working for the same company, sharing an affiliation with a religious organization, having kids that go to the same afterschool activities, or just having a common love for the outstanding margaritas at the same restaurant (try Tres Agaves in SF), shared places help tie us all together.

This idea came to life for me again last week (as it does fairly often) when I had the privilege of meeting Amy Keroes, Founder and CEO of Mommy Track’d (love that she shares our penchant for the apostrophe). Although we didn’t realize it before we met, once we started talking, it became clear that we actually a) went to the same high school, just a few years apart and b) grew up in the same neighborhood, only a few blocks from each other. Suddenly, based on these “place” connections, it gave us a whole new level of understanding of each other. We had been through the same classes, walked the same blocks every day and endured a lifetime worth of San Francisco fog…. What followed was a terrific conversation about wanting to build great Web products and the challenges of doing that while being a Mom, all with a shared understanding of some key parts of what led us to where we are.

This is why we are excited about building Center’d in a way that surfaces the serendipity of shared experiences. Ultimately we hope this will serve a dual purpose – bringing people closer together and helping people get a better understanding of places they want to know about (schools, doctors, hotels, etc) by providing easy access to who in their network might have an association with those places.

I want to thank Amy for the great feedback and ideas. I love her site…one of my favorite parts is the “Funny Papers.” Check it out…it’s like Dilbert for working moms.

Mother's Day Giving

2008-05-07T23:06:00.000-07:00

Ahh, Mother’s Day. A special day for making that perfect plan to show mom what she means to you. While you wait for Center’d to launch and serve all of your planning needs, we thought we’d put an idea out there for those of you still looking for that token of appreciation and those of you who forgot about Mother’s Day until 10 seconds ago when you started reading this post. For you in the latter group, I am a little disappointed, but there is no time for that now. Let’s fix it.

A gift that caught our eye is the Global Giving Mother’s Day Menu. For the mom that prefers to give than to receive, this is a fantastic opportunity to empower her to help some worthy women and family-oriented projects.

The opportunities include education, healthcare, and family support for needy mothers around the world. Even cooler is the fact that she can choose which cause to help through a (biodegradable) gift card. With 500 grassroots projects around the world, including some close to home, this is a great opportunity to give a gift that won’t be exchanged.

(Thanks to the always helpful Cool Mom Picks for the suggestion!)

Why 28 dots?

2008-04-23T23:48:00.000-07:00

We all have questions that nag at us. These questions have driven philosophers since the beginning of humanity, and the quest to answer them has resulted in everything from Kant’s Schema to Ockham’s Razor to even more noble thought exercises. However, I know many of you have jobs, hobbies, and families, and you may not have the time to sit in a quiet place and think about the grandest question of all. So, I am here to answer it:

“Dude, what’s up with the 28 dots?”

First, let me say that I appreciate your candor and the casual nature with which you asked the question.

Second, the 28 dots refers to the Center’d logo, which you will note has 28 dots. But peel the onion: Why does the Center’d logo have 28 dots?

The Center’d logo is based on what people smarter than me call a ‘Centered Nonagonal Number’. According to Wikipedia , a centered nonagonal number is a centered figurate number that represents a nonagon with a dot in the center and all other dots surrounding the center dot in successive nonagonal layers. More simply put, 28 is the number of dots that yield a dot in the center (representing you), an inner nonagon of dots (representing your friends), and an outer nonagon of dots (representing your places).

But that isn’t all, it turns out that 28 has some interesting, almost mystical properties:

28 is the second perfect number after 6
28 is a Stormer number, which isn’t as scary as it sounds
28 is a happy number
28 is also the fourth magic number, but leading scientists agree it is much more magic than the others
Finally, 28 is a Keith number, which is really cool if your name is Keith

Now, I will agree with you that if you are not a mathematician or a scientist, these facts may not do much for you. This may surprise you, but I am neither a mathematician nor a scientist. So, I have even more facts that will shock and delight you. I should mention that in this context, usage of the term ‘facts’ means that I made them up. So, the validity of these statements will be mostly coincidental:

The original version of the ‘12 Days of Christmas’ was actually the ’28 Days of Christmas’. The final verse involved ’28 hamsters jazzercising’. It was later edited down due to the fact that the song was roughly 3 hours long
In the final scene of ‘Lost in Translation’, Bill Murray can be seen whispering something into Scarlett Johansson’s ear. We are kept from hearing this final message. Analysis of the video has shown he said ‘It’s all about 28, you know? Seriously man. 28.’
There are precisely 28 steps between each Starbucks in the city of San Francisco.

So there you go. Our logo is representative of the experience we want to create for you. We want to help you connect with your friends, help you find places that are important to you, and make plans involving those friends and places. Hence 28 dots. Mystery solved.

Shea Knight
Experiencifier
Center'd

Hello, and Welcome to the Center'd Blog

2008-04-16T17:48:00.000-07:00

We’re still working on putting the finishing touches on our site, but wanted to give you the scoop on what we’re up to since a lot of people have been asking. We didn’t mean for word of our exploits to get out quite this soon, but we’re certainly excited about the interest in our product!

So, here’s what Center’d is all about: We aim to make planning easier. From basic local activities like figuring out what to do this weekend to more complex plans like organizing a school event that needs volunteers, we will provide the tools to get it done. We want to help you connect to people you know, discover new places to go and things to do and plan any event or activity.

Center’d evolved from a concept (formerly called Fatdoor) that aimed to bring neighbors together in an online community. We have kept much of the functionality of the original site, while also adding planning tools focused on helping you get things done more easily, and without the pain of endless email chains, phone messages and parking lot conversations….

While we have expanded beyond the original idea of connecting neighbors, the notion of being a good neighbor is still very important to what we’re doing. It’s even one of our core values. We like to think of all people as neighbors, and ultimately we believe that if you treat everyone like a neighbor, the world will become your neighborhood.

We’re working hard behind the scenes on the first draft of the new site and will update everyone as soon as it’s polished and ready to roll in a few weeks.

We look forward to seeing you on Center’d soon!

Jennifer Dulski
Co-Founder and CEO
Center'd