Playster.org - a New Events Search Engine - Launches in Open Beta
A new niche search engine for public events. Indexes well-known events databases. Will allow users to add new results directly. An API is being built for developers. Built on Google's App Engine for speed and scalability.
Bangkok, Thailand, July 09, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Playster.org (www.playster.org), a new niche search engine for public events is now live in open beta. Playster was created to help people find something to do. Playster allows users to keyword search by date and location and provides results as descriptions and links to other sites.
Although targeted at public activities, the application is intended for a broad range of users. Activities indexed by the site could be anything from a professional sporting event to a local garage sale.
Playster's engine searches by date range, geographical location and keywords, sorting results by relevance and date. The site is intended to be very easy to use, not require sign-in or active community participation, and to be, as it is further developed, comprehensive.
"While there are several mature events databases online, there are currently none with meta-search capabilities. We felt we could fill a gap with Playster and give people a more straightforward snapshot of what's going on around them," said Matthew Smith, Playster's development lead.
Playster's team is currently indexing Yahoo's Upcoming events database (via an agreement) and is looking at others for inclusion. These active databases will be supplemented over time by user-added results.
A simple posting system (email verification but no user accounts) is being tested. The goal of that system is to allow anyone to quickly post a link and description of an event.
To aid developers in doing the same on a larger scale, a RESTful API
is being written.
Global reach
Playster is being built with the intention of global participation.
Several translations of the site into other languages are underway and the site will have full unicode support.
"For the events databases we've looked at, there is a heavy user bias towards North America and to a lesser extent Europe. We plan to focus on adding individual users and developers (via our API) in other markets around the world. We're currently developing ways to reach out to these markets," said Orawee Wiriyathananon, Playster's head of marketing.
Technology
The site is built on Google's App Engine, written in Python, Django and jQuery. Geocoding for searches is done via Google's maps API. The search and geocoding algorithms were written specifically for this site.
Links:
http://www.playster.org
http://blog.playster.org
http://www.playster.org/media
###
Although targeted at public activities, the application is intended for a broad range of users. Activities indexed by the site could be anything from a professional sporting event to a local garage sale.
Playster's engine searches by date range, geographical location and keywords, sorting results by relevance and date. The site is intended to be very easy to use, not require sign-in or active community participation, and to be, as it is further developed, comprehensive.
"While there are several mature events databases online, there are currently none with meta-search capabilities. We felt we could fill a gap with Playster and give people a more straightforward snapshot of what's going on around them," said Matthew Smith, Playster's development lead.
Playster's team is currently indexing Yahoo's Upcoming events database (via an agreement) and is looking at others for inclusion. These active databases will be supplemented over time by user-added results.
A simple posting system (email verification but no user accounts) is being tested. The goal of that system is to allow anyone to quickly post a link and description of an event.
To aid developers in doing the same on a larger scale, a RESTful API
is being written.
Global reach
Playster is being built with the intention of global participation.
Several translations of the site into other languages are underway and the site will have full unicode support.
"For the events databases we've looked at, there is a heavy user bias towards North America and to a lesser extent Europe. We plan to focus on adding individual users and developers (via our API) in other markets around the world. We're currently developing ways to reach out to these markets," said Orawee Wiriyathananon, Playster's head of marketing.
Technology
The site is built on Google's App Engine, written in Python, Django and jQuery. Geocoding for searches is done via Google's maps API. The search and geocoding algorithms were written specifically for this site.
Links:
http://www.playster.org
http://blog.playster.org
http://www.playster.org/media
###
Contact
Playster Inc.
Orawee Wiriyathananon
66851239642
www.playster.org
Orawee Wiriyathananon
66851239642
www.playster.org
Contact
Categories