Cynapse Adds Two New Sources To Localscope, Plus Restores Google Local
May 3, 2012
Already widely acclaimed, including being featured in the App Store several times, Localscope just keeps getting better. Even before today, the app has been utilizing over a dozen social and non-social sources to help people explore local surroundings, but Localscope v2.3 adds two more and restores one other.
Localscope launched in late 2010, organizing results by location from Google, Bing, Foursquare, Twitter, and Wikimapia. It was a good start, however, major social network integration didn't happen until v2.0 was released in December 2011, which included Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and more. And in the previous update, Cynapse folded in Fwix news and reviews.
That's a good group of sources, although, one can always do better, right? Indeed, Cynapse has with the addition of Citysearch and Wikipedia, plus the return of Google Local. With Citysearch, you find nearby businesses like restaurants and automotive service stations, and Wikipedia allows you to discover anything from the technical details and history of a city to the local parks.
In v2.2, we powered Google results in Localscope with Google Places that provided better results with star ratings for places. While Google Places is a great source for reliable business listings for an area, users still craved for the bulk of location information that they were discovering from Google when powered with Google Local. On popular demand, we are bringing back Google Local along with Google Places as 2 separate sources. Either of the sources can be independently enabled / disabled from the source manager screen.Like the other sources, Wikipedia and Citysearch can be disabled and results can be displayed in one of three different ways: list, gallery, and augmented reality view. You can disable, enable, and rearrange the order of sources by tapping on the "-+" cloud at the very right of the source bar. Viewing options are selectable after tapping the view (eye icon) button in the top-right. Beyond all of those source additions, there are just a couple more mentions for Localscope v2.3. To fix reliability issues, Cynapse is now using the latest Facebook API and now provides quick search (predefined terms) for lawyers, plumbers, and bakeries. Localscope is designed for iPhone and iPod touch running iOS 4.3 or later, and available in the App Store for $1.99. [gallery link="file" columns="4"]
