Localizing what's global, Refindr

A year ago we wrote a short note on one of our side projects: Refindr.

To recap, Refindr is basically a web based map application similar to Craigslist lost and found. Users can leave heart shaped pins on the map and share their story: Who they met & where did this happen. The meeting timestamp can be anything from a specific date to a decade. With (a lot of) luck, someone who knows the event will find the pin and reply.

We launched the site and pretty much left it there. The only places we marketed it was a few sideproject boards. As you can imagine, without marketing we only got barely any traffic and few pins on the map.

Every now and then we've been giving Refindr more thought and we always tell ourselves that the idea & execution is still valid. The project however always gets dumped to the end of the work queue, after all client work. This is not a happy place to be.

One thing we decided to try next is localize Refindr, starting from Finland, with a Finnish name. We'll still be using the same backend with all the map data, but the map will simply be focused on Finland and the app itself will be in Finnish. The global view might simply be too off-putting if you're from a small town in wherever.

This will be a neat thing to try and it'll be interesting to see whether the site will find it's Finnish audience by doing this. Naturally, we'll also have to plan and execute marketing this time.

We'll update what happens later.