Show HN: GeoTreat.com: Delight Website Visitors by Geolocation

[acoyfellow]

Hi everyone, this is my second Show HN attempt.. I would really love to see what the community thinks.

I went from idea to implementation extremely fast, but I am also quite happy with the value that a simple prototype can deliver. https://GeoTreat.com/ - With a tiny snippet of code, you can drop "Treats" on your web pages. That means, depending on your visitors location, they will be shown a special (modal popup) promotion of your choice. The treat can be placed anywhere in the world and have any radius.

Have a moment to spare any feedback on GeoTreat.com?

The home page has a quick (and sloppy) 1min 30sec video that gives a quick overview and demo.

If anyone has any criticism, feedback, questions, I would absolutely love to hear what you have to say.

If anyone wants to see a Live demo, let me know your general whereabouts in the comments. I will place a treat on your area and send you a URL.

-Jordan

[jacknews]

No offence, but will this delight visitors, or creep them out?

Personally I hate any kind of "customer discrimination". On the one hand I never know if the "special deal" I'm being offered is in a good way or a bad way. On the other, even if I'm being "positively discriminated", is it unfair, and possibly at the expense of someone else less fortunate?

Best to just maintain a level playing field, IMHO, although I can see the benefit of offering local deals that can only be local. For example, your nearest walmart ordered too many strawberries, and they're now on 1/2 price offer. That kind of geo targeting makes sense.

[acoyfellow → jacknews]

Some ideas I am working on (and considered implementing) to help with that "creep factor"/customer discrimination..

1) Pre filter using their IP so that people not in range would not see the geolocation request.

2) Instead of automatically opting in, I plan to allow the website owners to chose if they'd like a button widget they can customize. This way they can let users click a "75% Off Button" or something along those lines, THEN confirm their geo-location.

I love your WalMart example, thats exactly the sort of thing that could work.

[LarryMade2]

Well its good IF folks pull out their browser when they're in the area... Also it looks like the action code is specific to one advertiser, so if the ad isn’t on the device when the person is nearby they miss the opportunity.. is that right?

I could see something like that compliment my concept of a community search tool http://doplaces.com where you can find events or things to do within a community. But for that to be beneficial the detector should be more dynamic and get a database result of any current deals nearby, not just specific ones.

[asselinpaul]

Congrats on building something that looks cool :)

[acoyfellow → asselinpaul]

I appreciate that :) -- but the main goal is to build something that provides value. I hope to focus GeoTreat into something more specific that can help solve something big.

I talk to small business owners all the time, and they don't understand native apps, run their own sites, and don't know how to code. I had them in mind when building this.

[mapster]

Great concept. No creep factor as most every retailer is using my IP to hit me with ads after I left their website.

[desouzt]

clicky - http://www.geotreat.com

[ondesk007]

That's Great ! It's good

[acoyfellow → ondesk007]

Thanks ondesk007

[gustavodemari]

Cool!

Congrats Jordan, it's promising.

[eyaltoledano]

Great MVP! I would use this for an eCommerce venture. :)