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What is Tuurf?

Tuurf is a new Internet-based positioning service that makes it possible for the users to find out where their friends are, what they are up to at the moment, share your favourite places and much more.

Users will be able to share stuff with other users of Tuurf. It can be such varied things as a favourite shopping route, photos, interests, and their personal mood at the moment - wherever they are.

Tuurf is a mobile application but it is also a website. On the website, users can experience roughly the same things as through the mobile interface, but not all the functionality regarding the positioning bits. Our aim is to be a top mobile service where the regular browser-based surfing on your computer acts more as a backup to where our main focus is, namely mobility.

If you tuurf something, you can connect a spot in the world with a picture you´ve just taken, a small comment about that spot or a message regarding that piece of ground using GPS-based technololgy.

Any user of Tuurf who happens to physically pass that spot can interact and see what you have done. Users will be able to scale their usage of our service regarding what other people should be able to see. The user´s tuurfing can be seen both on mobile phones as well as using an ordinary computer to surf the web.

News

08/07/11 - Why Location Based Services will change your life

132 years ago an american by the name of Alexander Graham Bell recieved the first patent for the invention we today know as the telephone. Initially the phone was considered a controversial product since it replaced the tightly controlled telegraph network. The invention evoked strong feelings as it redefined the notion of a discussion, from having required people to interact face-to-face, to something that also could be experienced over great distances.

Most of you reading this blog probably experienced the shift when cellular phones became available to general public in the mid-90's. The arguments were largely the same as they are today; 'Why does a person have to be reachable everywhere, at any time?'. Naive questions today, but highly relevant just 13 years ago. The greater part of the modern world expects their friends,family and coworkers to be reachable by phone at any time.

The traditional telephone required the user to be at a fixed position to be reachable. Since this was the case, there was never a question of where the other party was. The cellphone, however, introduced the sentence that is most defintely the most common phrase uttered over the air today:

Where are you?

Location Based Services will change our behaviour just like the cellphone did during at the end of the 20th century. Maybe not next year, but definitely in the five years to come. Not letting your friends know where you are will be a social prerequisite just like you are expected to have your cellphone switched on today.

--jimmy

08/03/19 - The future is here

In Japan there are no longer any 2G mobile phones on sale. Newer models have the more up-to-date standard 3G instead. The Tuurf development team likes the future better than the past.

--hjalmar

08/01/30 - Tuurf gathers one hundred evangelists

It's with my greatest pleasure we can report that tuurf has reached the magical number one hundred amongst our supporters. By letting friends in the blogosphere and industry talk about tuurf one hundred persons have let us know they want to become future tuurfers.
When looking at the list of users one quickly realizes it's not ordinary people that have signed up. It's the it-elite, the edge's edge of Internet evangelists. Persons whom whatever startup there is would dream of to have as users. Thanks for helping us forward!

--hjalmar

07/12/31 - Happy new year!

Tuurf wishes to send you all a happy new year and end of holiday greeting. Look out for us in 2008!

--hjalmar

07/12/18 - We are being noticed

Tablefinder CEO Anders Fredriksson has a word or two about us Tuurfers.

Interesting read, we´ll see about the outcome...

--martin

07/12/13 - Nightclubbing

Last friday, the Tuurf-team was out and about in Stockholm.

Dinner with fine wine and other drinks were consumed at one of Stockholms finer establishments. The evening ended on a slightly confusing but very amusing moment when the team was paparazzi´d and put on show at one of the city´s more notorius gossip web sites.

Just too bad that the photographer seemed to have a bad case of dyslexia. Check our names out below the picture here.

All said and done, it still feels great to be on track and to keep on working towards our release of Tuurf during this coming spring.

Until next time, friends!

--martin

07/12/11 - The Economist writes about Tuurf

Well, not quite already. On the other hand they are writing about social networks in mobile phones in their article Playing tag. Correctly they describe the problem about GPS positioning indoors and elaborates about the possibilities using Bluetooth in close-quarters. However, they do miss the harsh truths about Bluetooth only working at full capabilities in near perfect environments. The article example of using a bar might be proven to be less than perfect. 3G on the other hand...

Another thing we here at Tuurf think differently about is their way of monetizing; we dont think it is appropriate to suggest that members should be come friends with businesses as a commercial model. On the other hand we believe that users should be able to opt-in to be rewarded from merchants. The classic moment 22 every startup faces is ofcourse as The Economist points out; how to attract users when none of their friends already uses a service? We do believe that excellence in the product itself can help solve that. If the software is absolutely inresistable to use, how could you not recommend it to everyone you know?

--hjalmar

07/11/30 - Website released!

We've just taken first first step of many to release Tuurf. The website Tuurf.com is now online with fresh information about us and what the project is all about. We will keep the RSS and news updated with what is going on in the development team.

--admin

07/11/22 - Welcome to Tuurf

Hi there,

Right now we're building the information page that will help the world get to know Tuurf. If you have any questions, please dont hesitate to contact us!

--hjalmar

Questions and Answers

So, what is the purpose of Tuurf?
Tuurf believes in the possibilities to create and maintain a social networking platform using your mobile phone and the power of GPS technology.

That´s fine, but who is supposed to use Tuurf?
Tuurf is for anyone who wants to communicate on their terms. Our users are not afraid to be at the spearhead of technological progress and trendiness. We also believe that anyone interested in using Tuurf believes in the power of human interaction and an an active lifestyle.

That´s great! Now, what do I need to start using Tuurf?
All you will need to get started is a mobile phone with the capability to download java-applications to it.

That´s neat! But what the name, what does Tuurf really mean?
Tuurf is just a re-writing of the word “Turf”. It is pronounced just as “Turf”, which we felt was a great word to describe ourselves and our service.

In case you didn´t know, here´s what it all means according to our dictionary:

  1. an area regarded as someone's personal territory; one's home ground.

  2. a person's sphere of influence or activity.


What kind of technologies are you using to make all this happen?

The webparts are built on LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and Obj-C/Cocoa for the mobile application.

Who are the players behind Tuurf?
Tuurf is a joint venture of Tewonder, Mjoelkbar and Uppsala Inkubator.

More information
Contact: Hjalmar Wåhlander
Mail: hjalmar@tuurf.com