Most photo-sharing services serve no purpose beyond offering a way to share your view of the world, and color that view with filters. iCoolHunt, a new app from Italy, aims to change that with an application that can track global trends as they emerge.
iCoolHunt is a gamified photo-sharing service focused on trend-spotting, otherwise known as "cool-hunting." Rather than snapping photos aimlessly, you're snapping photos to add to a collection of trends, or to start a new one. You get cred in the form of badges for being a stellar or prolific cool hunter. If you're not good at it, well, there's a badge for that, too.
The platform's main feature is the trend box, a photo stream that lets people identify and track trends collectively. Co-founder Luca Morena likens it to an open Pinterest board, and examples of these trends run the gamut from "Street Art Installations" to "Foxes Are The New Owls" to "Things Not Organized Neatly." As people continue contributing to a trend box, the app crowdsources trend-spotting.
Morena, who co-founded the app with his brother Alessio, says trend-spotting is an old-fashioned industry. It's usually the "experts" saying what's cool and what's next. iCoolHunt democratizes the process. "Our idea is that we should provide a service in which data and information about trends is collected and filtered by the people," Morena said.
Thus, iCoolHunt's data can become a trend forecaster for industries. Rather than a nostalgic look at the past, it's a look at potential signs of the future. For example, one trend box right now is "Gardens in Unexpected Places." While that is fun and interesting in itself, it also may be a marker of something more: Our desire for more green in our cities. Perhaps city planners could use such data to figure out where community garden plots, mini parks, or other neighborhood greening is most desired. Tags and metadata are used to pinpoint locations in the app.
The app functions much like you'd expect. Scroll vertically to see the photos posted in a particular trendbox. Tap below an image -- or "prey," as the app calls it -- to up- or down-vote its coolness. You can explore recently posted prey, what's trending, and you can track specific users and their postings if you find their prey especially awesome.
The iCoolHunt team raised $670,000 in seed funding from Italy's largest bank.
You can join iCoolHunt in its free iOS app or through its website.
