December 12, 2000

6:13 AM

 ISAWYOU.COM SETS STAGE FOR RADICAL, NEW MESSAGING MEDIUM --Zonagraphic Messaging connects people, communities worldwide. So not only can you get in touch with that cutey you saw in the mall last week and didn't get a chance to talk to, but you can also report crimes & rat on bad drivers. I wonder what other uses could there be for this service?
posted by black8 (9 comments total)

Wow, so yet another internet company that provides a service that will be great IF it attracts users. And why would it attract users, if it only works well once it has a ton of users? I thought these all went out of business already...
posted by smackfu at 7:16 AM on December 12, 2000

ISAWYOU? Hmm... the name has a striking similarity to ISEEKYOU (ICQ).
posted by fil! at 7:29 AM on December 12, 2000

i wrote an article about a web site that used a concept like this one in january of '99. the site seems to be chugging along quite nicely, although it's on a smaller scale ...
posted by maura at 8:14 AM on December 12, 2000

anotherstupidideathatwillfail.com?

perhaps i'm just bitter, because no one had noticed me in my Zone....and if they had it would probably be something like i saw you looking at me in Perko's the other day you stupid creep. i would never go out with you so leave me alone who ever you are.
posted by th3ph17 at 9:39 AM on December 12, 2000

It's an interesting concept, and may even prove to be useful, if I ever visit again, but the first messages I saw were along the lines of "Yo, dudz, I saw this mad hot chix at the mall. If your her, EMAIL ME so I can rock your world!!!!"

Well, I was never very good at the cool kids' lingo, so you'll have to excuse that pathetic parody. Some of the ones deeper into the site were "I'm looking for an old friend..." and that, to me, is the site's true usefulness.

As it is, there's no draw for me to ever visit again.
posted by cCranium at 11:46 AM on December 12, 2000

Thing is...what are the chances the 'old friend' is going to be looking in that specific "zon"? Chances are, people are only going to look at the messages in their locale. Not much different from posting a sign at the library.
posted by karenh at 3:56 PM on December 12, 2000

I can't tell if you people are against the concept in general or just isawyou.com's implementation of it.

Printed versions of "i saw you" that appear in weekly papers are usually pretty popular. The ones in The Stranger are so popular that they can get away with charging $10 for one (although they may have changed this back to free in the recent weeks).


posted by gluechunk at 4:26 PM on December 12, 2000

Creative Loafing^W^WWeekly Planet does them too; I don't think theirs are free, either.

IS - AW - YOU?

Oops. Digraph collision again. People are always doin' that...
posted by baylink at 8:15 PM on December 12, 2000

I like the concept. I like the concept a lot, actually, it's better than doing a Google search on someone's name.

And I kind of like I Saw You's implementation, truth be told. I just don't like the way people seem to be using it, to point out the fact that they saw a good looking woman.

Enforcing content is probably infeasible however; it's a lot of work and the site can't have a great deal of revenue at this point. Even if they do have capital from whatever source, if they start paying people to wade through and enforce content they'll burn through money way too fast.

It's a tricky situation. I'll probably end up going back in a bit just to see if it's growing, and what it's turning into. Satiate the curiousity and whatnot. They're still quite new, so who knows.
posted by cCranium at 6:30 AM on December 13, 2000