Spotsetter had been in talks with Apple for quite some time. The news just came out that the company has been acquired by Apple. The main reason for the acquisition is to get an edge over rivals in the Maps department, like Google maps and Bing maps.
News is that Spotsetter has been bought for its founders technical skills and its database of 5 million user profiles and 40 million places. Apple has not disclosed the actual terms and price of the acquisition but the Spotsetter founders are quite happy from the deal.
When ex-Google maps engineer Stephen Tse and Johnny Lee made the company Spotsetter, they wanted to integrate maps with the social lives of people. We live in the age of big data everything about us is out there saved on our social networks, places we have been, reviews we have given and things we have said on the internet.
Spotsetter leverages this big data and passes it through a specific algorithm which allows it to specify personalized search results for each user. Users can search on the app currently available on Android and Apple store about places or any keyword. And you will be served with your personalized search results. Spotsetter accomplishes this by crawling through your connected Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and other 30 or more websites.
Spotsetter is not just a search engine. It provides a full social networking experience. You can tag your friends inside the app, view places they have been to and view the places they have shared. Spotsetter overlays on the maps with stunning user content like check-ins and shared places.etc. In a recent blog post, the company announced plans for working on wearable tech and were quite excited about it.
Most of the team in Spotsetter will be joining Apple along with the founders but some will not. Spotsetter was launched after the founders raised $1.3 million from venture capitalists.
