Family, Food, and a Facebook App. The Holidays are Here!

The holidays are right around the corner and we've got an early present for you. No, it's not reindeer socks, but good guess.

The Facebook application, Peerviders, is one day away from completion and as a little holiday treat, I'm going to let you in.

For those of you just catching up, here's the deal:

The application will allow you to leverage your network of friends to get honest referrals for service providers that you're looking for. So, rather than going to Yelp or City Search to see what complete strangers have to say about a plumber that you're thinking of hiring, you can log into Peerviders and see who your friends have used and hear what they have to say about them.

It's a straightforward approach to the old word-of-mouth referral system that has been used and trusted for years. We're just making it easily accessible via a social network that everybody already uses to stay in touch with their friends. It's a no-brainer, right?

The most important part of the application moving forward is that you use it. Enter the providers that you've used in the past that you would refer (or even warn your friends about), and invite other friends to use it. The more friends you have that use the application and the more providers they enter, the more helpful the application will become.

We'd love to hear your feedback. We'd love to hear your ideas. We'd love to hear how much you like or hate us. We'd just like to hear from you, so let us know what you have to say - email us at peerviders@gmail.com.

See you around you little turkeys.

What's in a name?

So the application building process is nearing its end; at least we are rapidly approaching the end to the beginning. Thus far, we have spent a good amount of time thinking about how users will react to the application and trying to cater to the need. Well guess what? We're done trying to figure out what you need. We're getting ready to launch and our eyes and ears will be open to all the feedback that you can dish out.

In terms of latest developments, we've had to change the name. Naming, Branding and Trademarks are very tricky things. The choice between "Do I want to explain my app in the name" or "Should I take the Google approach and create my own brand" is a difficult decision to come to. The biggest hurdle though is that once you land on a name, has anyone else beat you to the punch?

That said, we have landed on a name. Our new name is (drum roll please...) Peerviders.

I knew you'd like it ;)

Either way, we're moving forward. We're looking to start testing it internally within a week and depending on how that goes, we'll be ready to release it out to the Facebook crowd.

So you're probably asking yourself, how do I get a piece of the action? How can I be one of the first to use the Peerviders application?

Well for starters, you can comment on this post and let us know that you'd like to get involved. Your feedback will have a fundamental impact on the future of the application. This is an idea that is not going away and we are determined to help users realize the value of leveraging their friend network for referrals. Our focus is more along the lines of making this a very easy app to use - plain and simple.