Category: Product Development

A behind the scenes look at the Engineering adventures in a startup!

Why HotSpots?

HotSpots Venue Ratings

Do you ever wish you could know exactly what the scene is like before showing up at the location? Well, lucky for you, now you can! With the HotSpots app, you can see users’ ratings on various aspects of the location, including price, product, service, cleanliness, and dining crowd, as well as pictures, videos, audio, and comments in real time so you can see exactly what’s happening before arriving. These features will help you find a place that’s more fitting for your needs, whether it be a fun day with family or a wild night with friends! You can also call the place of interest, visit the website, and receive directions to the location with GoogleMaps directly through the app. No longer will you waste your time showing up to an unsuitable event, and instead find the perfect place to make memories! 

Not only can you see the location in real time, you can find ways to save money as well! HotSpots offers a merchant service where you can see which locations have special offers and view them by simply tapping on the location of interest. How perfect is that? Now you can find new places near you to explore AND save money while doing so! HotSpots includes a wide variety of place types in your surrounding areas, including restaurants, bars and clubs, airports, and shopping centers to suit your needs. You can also search for specific places using the search box, and the exact location of the spot will be pinned on a map. This way, you can not only see the exact location of the place, but also the area that surrounds it. The map also pins similar locations surrounding the searched spot if you want to check out other places in the area as well.

HotSpots also includes several interactive features, such as Refer a Friend, Friends, and Leaderboard. Refer a Friend allows you to offer a friend’s email inviting your friend to download and use HotSpots. When your friend submits their first score, you will receive bonus Mojo Points as an added benefit! Similarly, if you sign into HotSpots using your Facebook account, you can invite your friends through Facebook to create your own list of friends on HotSpots. HotSpots also has a Leaderboard showing the users with the top Mojo Points among your friends, specific venues, and entire states. HotSpots will be adding the option to notify your friends when you submit ratings or check in and vice versa. Meeting up with your friends just became easier! 

Stop wasting your time, and start using HotSpots TODAY!

The HotSpots Map

The HotSpots Map is powered by Google Maps with some extra special sauce.  When the app is loaded, the user’s position is determined based upon their GPS location or triangulated based on their wifi location.  Once we know the user location, we can begin to populate the map.

HotSpots asks Google Maps for places (or ‘establishments’) near the user’s location.  However, we don’t ask for all places, but rather only the places of interest.  Users can select their desired place types using HotSpots’ Place Types view.  There are dozens of types to choose from.  Only the place types that match the user’s preference will be shown.  The default place types are Restaurants, Bars & Night Clubs, and Casinos.  Using different place types, users can see exactly the places of interest.  The maximum number of places shown can also be set by the user.

HotSpots can also show places that do not appear on the usual Google Map.  For example, a university gym and your favorite tennis courts may not show up on the Google Map.  Using HotSpots, users can create their own HotSpots of interest to appear on the application map and assign matching place types.  Other users can submit scores and comments on these new locations as usual.  User defined locations will be more fully described in another, more dedicated post.  Using this special sauce, HotSpots can display a wide variety of places and place types on the map, even those that do not normally appear on the Google Map.