RateItAll’s new geolocation solution, Double Dutch, promises to be the Ning of location-based social networks

By Marissa Louie, March 25

RateItAll, a top consumer ratings site headquartered in San Francisco, recently launched its white label  location-based mobile social network platform, Double Dutch (http://doubledutch.me). It received noteworthy coverage and rave reviews at SXSW in Austin. And it’s a blast to test drive.

The premise: Imagine if you were to take an app like Foursquare or Gowalla and limit the audience to a specific niche, like pick-up basketball players or attendees of the World Cup. That’s what Double Dutch promises with its white label solution, specifically for B2B customers including conference and events organizers, companies that work in multiple locations, and more.

Essentially, it is the Ning of location-based social networks.

CEO of RateItAll, Lawrence Coburn, emphasizes, “Double Dutch is exciting because it allows any company, community, or organization to get up and running with a best in class geolocation app in a matter of weeks.”

RateItAll is wise to enter this space since it can augment the geolocation service with over 5 million consumer ratings native to RateItAll, collected over the past 10 years. Think of it as importing Yelp ratings into Foursquare.

This is powerful because it provides the extra edge of consumer validation for almost any given location – if you check in somewhere, you can see what RateItAll users have rated the site. With Foursquare and Gowalla, you cannot view historical reviews of a location.

Additionally, the lack of privacy on Foursquare and Gowalla have caused concerns and unwanted implications. Lawrence Coburn says, “Location data is very useful, but it’s also very personal. The private label nature of Double Dutch allows communities to enjoy this functionality, but within the safer confines of a smaller, more trusted group.”

Double Dutch offers both a standard app for the consumer market (non-customized) and a customizable white label application.

Some product feature candy that Double Dutch offers:

Non-customized features:

-Social check-in
-Friending
-Friends view
-Search and venue discovery
-Locals view
-Venue information
-Ratings/reviews
-Venue photos
-Rockstardom
-Achievement stickers
-Point system
-Leaderboards
-Facebook integration
-Twitter integration
-Push notifications

Customization options (white-label basis only):

-App Name
-Logo and iPhone artwork
-Venue data
-Custom tab
-Custom achievement stickers (coming soon)
-Color scheme (coming soon)

Given the heated tee-off between Foursquare and Gowalla at SXSW, Double Dutch has great market timing. Lawrence Coburn tells us, “As smartphone usage continues to spike, I expect to see more and more demand for location-based services. The timing for a customizable, white-label app like Double Dutch couldn’t be better.”

We agree wholeheartedly.

Get the free Double Dutch iPhone app at the App store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/doubledutch/id336955484?mt=8

To request your own location-based network, contact CEO Lawrence Coburn at lawrence@doubledutch.me

About the Author:

Marissa is a contributor to Adotas and BusinessWeek. Follow her on Twitter: @malouie

Marissa Louie is the Founder and CEO of HeroEx, San Francisco’s affordable 1 hour delivery service.

Contact her at (510) 375-1941, or email marissa@heroex.com.

Let’s turn the tables and give the press some love. Here are Marissa Louie’s top picks.

By Marissa Louie, January 9

I’m not a PR person. But I am a CEO who has worked directly with several reporters, anchors, journalists, and bloggers covering national / mainstream, tech, local, and political media.

Take a look at which 15 members of the press are at the top of their game for 2010:

STAR OF THE YEAR:

Kym McNicholas (Anchor / Reporter, Forbes) steps into the minds of the subjects she portrays on camera, like a top actress would do. She makes people feel comfortable: she interviewed Steve Wozniak while riding a Segway and ballroom danced with SYTYCD’s Nigel Lythgoe, for example. What makes her star of the year? Her background in sports reporting and as a local news anchor, her professionalism and razor-sharp intellect, and her ability to get to the very core of a wide variety of subjects ranging from science and technology to professional sports and entertainment. Behind the scenes: Kym wakes up at the crack of dawn every day (including weekends), prepares very thoroughly for each interview, carries around all of her own equipment, shoots videos (with or without the help of a cameraman), and edits up to 2 hours of footage into 2-5 minutes. She is superwoman! Kym on Twitter

MEET THE PRESS (and bring your A-Game):

MAINSTREAM

Lea Goldman (Features Editor, Marie Claire) has taken her pedigree from Forbes (where she had some of the most popular stories and listicles) and brought it to the women’s fashion, lifestyle, culture, and celebrity magazine. She does her research – sometimes months in advance of covering a story. She also makes her interviewees feel at ease as she penetrates deeply into the thought process. The result: she reads between the lines, uncovers underlying emotions, and brings a story to life that is meaningful to her readers. Lea on Twitter

Eric Kuhn (Audience Interaction Producer, CNN) isn’t just one of the most influential online journalists in the field today, but has appeared on nationally televised CNN to bring life to his storyline. His on-camera personality is honest and personable, just like his off-camera personality. Hey CNN, here’s a crossover star in the making. No wonder Arianna Huffington calls Eric a “fearless journalist.” Eric on Twitter

David Gelles (Technology Reporter, Financial Times) goes out of his way to cover all angles of a story. In the past year since he joined FT’s San Francisco Bureau to cover technology and startups, he has amassed an impressive network of the most notable web celebrities. In addition to the articles he publishes in the newspaper and online, he also blogs for FT and has contributed to notable places including TechCrunch. He ruminates, takes good notes, digs far and wide to research, and assembles masterpiece after masterpiece. He’s the most eloquent journalist I’ve ever met, on record and off record. He’s Beethoven come to life on the salmon pages (and the web). David on Twitter

POP CULTURE AND MARKETING

Steve Hall (Publisher, Adrants, AdGabber, and ad:tech Blog) describes how he filters the hundreds of stories that fly across his desk every morning: “It’s methodical…I’ve come to just know whether a story would resonate with our readers or not.” His pop-culture spin and no-holds barred, yet cheeky approach are refreshing. At a recent panel we were on at Web 2.0 Expo, an overwhelming 40% of the audience either knew Steve personally or had read Adrants. I’m a fan, too. Steve on Twitter

Sean Percival (Publisher, Lalawag) pumps out pop culture-laced tech news that is one part adventure novel, and one part geek glory. He has sent LA-based Lalawag straight to stardom in just over 1 year, including at places like Techmeme. Sean’s quirky-cool lexicon has caught fire on the Internet: you might have seen the words kitteh, lalawabbit, ohnoez, and Caturday used all over Twitter and Facebook. This badass is a sleek dresser who rocks retro-hipster designer clothes, has the coolest hair (keep it long, Sean!) and makes any event look great together with his lovely wife, Laurie. Sean on Twitter

TECH

MG Siegler (Writer, TechCrunch) adds a refreshing and cool, tech-infused, tongue-in-cheek, Hollywood-esque spin on tech stories. And that only describes the titles of his articles at TechCrunch – his content is carefully considered and an adventure to read. MG is featured in Violet Blue’s “Top 10 Sexy Geeks” for 2010, and according to her, MG “exudes an irresistible combination of young James Spader and Don Draper.” I couldn’t agree more! MG on Twitter

Pete Cashmore (CEO, Mashable) At just 24, Pete has clawed his way from his home country of Scotland onto the top of the pedestal of the world’s technology elite. He’s brought a world class team along with him. His article titles are often hilarious and catchy, and he lead Mashable to cover Twitter extensively before anybody else was doing so. He recently started writing a CNN column about social media and networking. Plus he’s a ton of fun to hang out with in person. I know dozens of girls (and just as many guys – hehe sorry Pete) who swoon for his model looks. And he might comment or like your Facebook posts too, if you know him! Pete on Twitter

Richard McManus (Founder and Editor, ReadWriteWeb) has a thoughtful, relatable, approachable, no-nonsense approach to covering technology. It’s in his blood: his father was a renowned journalist. Richard follows up immediately, and makes sure that somebody checks out your story pitch if you give him a good lead. He crowdsources from his readership too: for example, he changed his Twitter handle from @ReadWriteWeb to @RWW after getting feedback from his followers. Richard on Twitter

Adam Ostrow (Editor in Chief, Mashable) is the sort of guy you’d like to be best friends with, and a deep introspective person. His content is fresh, thorough, charismatic, and to the point. He manages the editorial content that covers the evolution of technology and web trends. The world watches his pen (or is it a sword?): The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Times of London, The Globe and Mail, Forbes, BusinessWeek, Newsweek, AdAge, BBC, ABC News, CNN, and MSNBC. Adam on Twitter

Om Malik (Publisher, GigaOM) picks up his cell phone immediately and gets right on it. He takes things into his own hands and is very thorough. His intelligence seeps through his demeanor, his voice, and even in his stage presence at The Crunchies. He gets primo placement after primo placement. It’s like he’s a highly trained intelligence agent with a sharpshooting eye. It’s no wonder that Om has led The GigaOM Network to reach an audience of over 3 million viewers. Om on Twitter

LOCAL NEWS

Joe Vazquez (Anchor / Reporter, CBS 5) will come out to cover your local story in the San Francisco Bay Area if you have a good spin. He puts you at ease in front of the camera (the spotlight can be glaring, and going on camera can be nerve-wracking), and makes you feel great about working with him. It’s no wonder: this pro has a local TV news career that spans more than two decades. In 2008, he won an Emmy for his 11 o’clock news coverage of the tiger escape at the San Francisco Zoo. If you do a great job and befriend him, he’ll remember you and reach back out too. Joe on Twitter

Tom Foremski (Publisher, SiliconValleyWatcher) always knows the best events in Silicon Valley. His pedigree from Forbes is very evident in his natural, insider-coverage blogging style. You can trust Tom to give you tips on what’s good – often the tips that nobody else will tell you. He teeters on the bleeding edge between technology and media, and brings you right to where you want to be on with an impeccable taste. His cool, James Bond- meets-Tom Ford-meets John Smith nature will leave you wanting more. Tom on Twitter

POLITICS

Maegan Carberry (Blogger, Huffington Post and Causecast, and Co-host, Wilshire & Washington) provokes our thoughts and stirs the imagination of our young, entrepreneurial, cause-devoted “”Millennial Generation.” She has a heart of gold yet a ballsy presentation that gets noticed. See her effervescence shine in her recent article “The 2020 Project: What’s your Perfect Vision for the Next Decade?” Maegan on Twitter

Ari Melber (Correspondent, The Nation, and Columnist, Politico) has a no bullshit approach to politics. He gets right down to the core issues that matter. At his young age, he has accomplished much. On the short list: he has appeared on NBC, CNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC, FOX News and Bloomberg News, and has served as a Legislative Aide in the U.S. Senate and as a national staff member of the 2004 John Kerry Presidential Campaign. It’s no wonder he’s a leader amongst leaders and knows the streets of New York like the palm of his hand. Ari on Twitter

Michael Skolnik (Editor of Politics Section of Global Grind) is very real and doesn’t sugarcoat his stories. He weaves a powerful story and relates to his subjects by providing perspective from his own life. He thinks quietly and deeply, then produces a crescendo. In person, Michael is a skilled negotiator amongst a room of diverse opinions. His background as a documentary filmmaker in countries like Swaziland, where a bullet nearly shaved the side of his head, helped him earn his chops. Not only is this man one of the most influential people in the hip hop community, but his character has deep soul. He has the respect of Russell Simmons and dozens of our mutual friends for a very good reason. Michael on Twitter

Are you not on this list, but think you should be? Drop me a line or comment below.

Marissa is a contributor to Adotas and BusinessWeek. Find her on Twitter: @malouie

Marissa Louie is the Founder and CEO of HeroEx, San Francisco’s affordable 1 hour delivery service. Customers order their favorite items at heroex.com, and then crowdsourced Delivery Heroes deliver the items anywhere in San Francisco.

Contact her at (510) 375-1941, or email marissa@heroex.com.

By Marissa Louie

Ok my fellow Young Grasshoppers, we need to fly. Let’s close deals, chomp on some revenue, and raise cold hard liquid cash. My Dot2Dot family and my NYC Nerdsters, I can be your connection to Silicon Valley who will get you in with the right people. But to actually cut the deal in SF, you need the right venue, with the right mixture of old school (for historical context), understated class, and worldliness (so you can think about the possibilities outside of the room). The point is to focus on the people at the table, the deal, and your future partnership together. Just be strategic about your bathroom breaks and watch your toes. Here’s where I’ve cut deals from $1000 to $24m.

Marissa Louie and Nalin Mittal at Cafe de la Presse, by David Gelles of Financial Times

These work for me:

Seasons Four Seasons

• I always get deals done here. I got my biggest deal done here.

Carnelian Room

• Ask for longtime General Manager Philip Ip and tell him I sent you. He pays 100% attention to detail and knows exactly what to do.

Hyatt Regency

• Before you go, take a ride in the speed elevator while you watch everything beneath you shrink. Now take that soaring feeling straight into your meeting.

NOPA

• It’s best to come late at night with a cheery spirit and with no intention of cutting a deal.

Masa’s

• Do your deal in a hushed voice. And wear something conservative unless you want men gawking at you during your deal.

Café de la Presse

• This is the social media, PR, and communications hub of SF, so cut your deals related to those arenas here. According to superstars @dgelles, @nalin, @rafer, @dayo, @dipw0nder, and more.

The Dining Room at the Ritz Carlton

• Bring your East Coast colleagues here.

Kokkari

• I took control of a client dinner where everyone was twice my age by talking about how consulting executives cannot sell, even though 90% of top executives have a background in sales.  We got the deal, celebrated, and then I bumped into Gavin Newsom and Willie Brown on my way out.

The Palace Hotel

• It’s where you make history.

Sugar Cafe

• It’s where my company, AD-Village, was born. I’ve taken that energy into cutting multiple deals, and have been a loyal customer for 2 years.

You’d think these would work, but they don’t for me:

They’re great dining places, but for me, the settings are uncomfortable, the people tend to stare rudely, or the waitstaff is stiff and awkward. The chi is just not right.

Aqua

Gary Danko

Fleur de Lys

Boulevard

Jardiniere

Silks

The NYC version is on its way!

Marissa is the CEO and Co-founder of AD-Village. On the job, she handles, sales, PR, customer service, community relations, marketing, speaking at conferences, strategy, recruiting, coding, text messaging, Twittering, and returning calls and emails.

She is a frequent conference speaker and will make a keynote speech or presentation at Web 2.0 Expo New York, Wharton West Entrepreneur Club, LeadsCon Las Vegas, and the Mobile Marketing Summit.

Marissa blogs at BusinessWeek, Adotas, and here at Bub.blicio.us.

Find her on Twitter: @malouie

Contact her at (510) 375-1941 or Email her at marissa@ad-village.com.

The State of the Industry Panel at ad:tech San Francisco

L to R: Randall Rothenberg, Rishad Tobaccowala, Carol Kruse, Neil Ashe, Jeff Berman

ad:tech San Francisco drew over 12,000 attendees last week and had a well-documented events and party calendar on the ad:tech blog thanks to Steve Hall.

The State of the Industry Panel (presented by the IAB) was the best keynote of ad:tech San Francisco in my opinion:

It was informative, though-provoking, entertaining, and filled with quotable quotes. Most of all, the speakers were made comfortable by the personable moderator, Randall Rothenberg.

See below for highlights.

Moderated by:

• Randall Rothenberg, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau

Panelists:

• Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO of Denuo Group and ad:tech Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
• Neil Ashe, President of CBS Interactive
• Carol Kruse, VP Global Interactive Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company
• Jeff Berman, President of Sales and Marketing, MySpace

The room started out empty. Within minutes, hundreds of attendees were seated.

Randall Rothenberg: Where are your companies investing in advertising?

Summarized answers from the panelists:

• Asia (Kruse)
• All digital properties (Ashe, Tobaccowala)
• All online media, especially search (testing brand vs. direct response)
• A focus on mobile
• We want to focus on understanding the whole person through using behavioral predictive analytics (Berman)

Rothenberg: What is the value and contribution of social media?  Is it  just PR hype or something else — a hybrid?

Summarized answers: Old models don’t make sense any more.  Social media is not campaign based, but requires ongoing communication.  The media objective of the past was about where to put advertising – now it’s find where the audience sticks.

Rothenberg: Can Social Media  be a part of a media plan – or is it rather “communications planning” or “influence planning”?

Summarized answers:  Social Media can’t be planned by campaign or by quarter.  It must be an ongoing plan. It has to be authentic, and it has to talk about what’s great, fresh, and trusted.  It’s not a media strategy – it’s a  service strategy, customer service, and product strategy;  it’s branding, not media.

Rothenberg: How does an agency incorporate Social Media then?

Summarized answers: You have to consider “non-working media” versus “working media”. What works and what doesn’t? Agencies have to start by being agnostic. They should have fewer campaigns, and reach more ecosytems. Take a “great creative idea” and take it across all media.  There is no way to coordinate accross multiple agencies.  The consumer is driving changes so fast that we’re all running to keep up.  The Chief Knowledge Officer will be sitting in the position of power.

Rothenberg: Have we boxed ourselves into direct response?  Or is there room for creativity or branding?

Summarized answers: Direct response metrics saddle us with a burden. One recurring theme heard often over the past day (at ad:tech) is that it’s all going to become one — both branding and direct response.  The focus on metrics was in order to get budgets approved. When it comes to building brand awareness, “nothing compares to television” for Coca-Cola.

Rothenberg: How much does creativity matter, compared to metrics?

Summarized answers: Creativity will matter even more. Creativity is not just pictures. Google search is getting more and more creative.  Has the definition of “the great idea” changed?  Or is the palette just larger now?  The end-user or consumer will make the great decision. They will have more decision making power. People choose with their hearts and use numbers to justify what they just did.

Rothenberg: Is content or channels more important?

Summarized answers: Tobaccowala said, “The hysteria of insecurity is now driving the industry.” The point is not which channels to use, but what content to put in the channels.

Conference Chair Drew Ianni wraps it up

ad:tech San Francisco also had great keynotes featuring:

• Jimmy Wales, CEO of Wikipedia
• Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu
• Steve Hayden, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy Worldwide
• Pete Blackshaw, Executive VP of Digital Strategic Services at Nielsen Online
• John Travis, VP of Branding, Adobe
• Eric Feng, SVP of Audience and CTO, Hulu
• Tina Sharkey, Chairman and Global President, BabyCenter
• Joel Rubinson, Chief Research Officer, The Advertising Research Foundation

Thank-you to all of the conference organizers, notably Don Knox, Drew Ianni, Jeff Valentine, and Warren Pickett.

Marissa is the CEO and Co-founder of AD-Village.

Marissa also blogs at marissalouie.com and the BusinessWeek blog “Young Female Entrepreneur“.

Find her on Twitter: @malouie

Contact her at (510) 375-1941 or Email her at marissa@ad-village.com.

By Marissa Louie

The Advertising 2.0 Party at ad:tech SF

Take a handful of fun Skittles, mashup a little Web 2.0, and invite celeb co-hosts from ad:tech SF — sounds like a party jam!

This is the official ad:tech afterparty for Tuesday April 21.

At 8:30p, hop on over 1/2 a block to Hotel W *after* the evening’s events at Moscone Center West:

• ad:tech/SF BIG (6:30-8:30p)
• Affiliate Marketing Networking Party (5:30-7:30p)

Join Co-hosts and VIPs:

• Marissa Louie – CEO of AD-Village
• Aaron Sahagun – CEO of Alumwire
• Amanda Coolong – CEO of Beta PR
• Efren Toscano – CEO of Techzulu
• Julian Brass – CEO of Notable.TV
• Kamal Ravikant – Angel Investor
• Khris Loux – CEO of JS-Kit
• Kym McNicholas – Reporter, Forbes TV
• Shawn Collins – Founder of Affiliate Summit
• Steve Hall – Founder of Adrants and Adgabber
• Tom Bedecarre – CEO of AKQA
• Tom Foremski – SiliconValleyWatcher, ZDNet, and former Financial Times columnist

Platinum Sponsor:

• Sun Startup Essentials: Jumpstart your startup

Gold Sponsors:

• AD-Village: Access to high-paying ads across top ad networks
• JS-Kit: Rich, interactive features for your website
• Skittles: Transplant the Rainbow (Skittles, anyone??)

Media Sponsors:

• ad:tech (Official ad:tech blog writeup by Steve Hall from Adrants is here)
• Adrants
• Affiliate Marketing Summit
• Bub.blicio.us
• Techzulu

Badged ad:tech SF attendees only, please. Non-attendees, please add yourself to the waitlist.

**RSVP AT: http://ad-village.com/AD20**

See who’s coming on the Facebook event page.

Even in this Recession, we are helping Web 2.0 companies monetize with advertising revenue. We invite you to come celebrate the good times at The Advertising 2.0 Party.

Previously:

Launch Party 2.0 at Web 2.0 Expo on April 1 at Club Six (500 guests, plus TechCrunch, BusinessWeek, Lalawag, LA Weekly, SF Weekly) — we’ve barely recovered since..

Marissa is the CEO and Co-founder of AD-Village. It helps website publishers make more revenue from online advertising by recommending top ads in a simple ad recommendations interface.

She is a frequent conference speaker and has presented about online advertising most recently at O’Reilly ETech, REBarCamp, and the Microsoft Blogger Roundtable.

Marissa blogs at marissalouie.com, BusinessWeek blogs, and here at Bub.blicio.us.

Find her on Twitter: @malouie

Contact her at (510) 375-1941 or Email her at marissa@ad-village.com.