MessageParty lets you start a location–specific chat room:

This is an iPhone app that lets you create a chat room that’s targeted at a specific location, like a classroom or a concert venue. You just sign in with Facebook and away you go. You can see what conversations are happening nearby, and there’s also a room for the city you’re in right now. It’s pretty neat. At this point, there’s not many people using it, but if it gets a user base, I can see it being a pretty interesting place to check out.

I really like the idea of these location–specific conversations. TimeinB5 is a startup that’s doing something similar, but targeted at people waiting around in airports. It’s a bit funny to let people socialize by being antisocial and playing with their gadgets, but such is life. If you can stumble across an interesting new friend from the comfort of your iPhone, well, that’s pretty nifty.

Follow them at @messageparty.

Barcode Hero wants you to shop with your friends:

The idea here is that you install a barcode scanning app on your iPhone (Android coming soon) and use it next time you’re out shopping. You’ll get easy access to price comparisons and product reviews — ho hum, I know. The neat twist is that Barcode Hero adds some interesting social features to the standard price comparison model.

For starters, the things you scan get posted to Facebook, so your friends can see if you happen to be looking at something they’re interested in, and maybe offer up some recommendations. If you happen to really like a product, you can write a recommendation about it and share it with your friends, and if you do a lot of shopping in a particular category, you can earn achievements — who wouldn’t want to be crowned the king of small kitchen appliances?

Barcode Hero is a fun spin on barcode scanning. I’m installing it on my phone now, and I can’t wait to start bombarding my Facebook stream with consumer bliss.

Follow them at @barcodehero.

Howdy, folks;

There will be no entry today — The Pimp is feeling under the weather and could do with starting the weekend early. See you Monday.

Nicereply wants to help you improve the emails you send to your customers:

Now, I generally try to focus on consumer web sites here on Venture Pimp, but Nicereply is too good of an idea to pass by. The idea is that you, writing emails for your company, add a unique link to your emails that prompts recipients to rate the message. They click that link and are able to rate your email (1-5 stars) and add a personal comment.

The interface is quick and attractive, and there’s a pretty thorough API available for accessing all of your data. There’s a live demo for you to play with the administration interface and get a feel for how the system works. It feels very solid.

Feedback is very important, and this seems like a way to lower the barrier to entry for end-users. In the future, I can see this expand to offer some sort of reward for sending feedback, but it’s already a great idea.

Follow them at @nice_reply, and check out their blog for status updates and integration hints.

jummpp.in wants to help you figure out something to do:

The idea here is that there’s probably lots of things you’d be into doing, but you’re not married to any of them. jummpp.in makes it easy to suggest potential things to do and share them with your friends on Facebook. If the idea has any merit, your friends can say they’d be into it. When the time comes, you can set a date for the activity and make it happen.

I think this is interesting because it mediates one of the most annoying parts of trying to schedule anything with a large number of people, which is often something akin to herding cats. 

jummpp.in has a weird name, but it’s a good idea (and an adorable mascot). I think it might work better as a in-Facebook app, rather than a separate web site that integrates with it, but we’ll see. Next time you’re trying to plan an event, try starting out here.

Readshout wants you to share what you’re reading:

Just drag the bookmarklet to your browser’s toolbar, and whenever you come across something interesting, Readshout it to share it with the world. Whenever you’re looking for something interesting to read, hop on over to the web site and see what’s hot.

The idea here is a bit like Readness — users like you and me share what we’re reading, which is then shared with everyone else. Unlike Readness, though, Readshout is more focused on interesting articles rather than news.

So, when does the other shoe drop? What’s the point of these services that push things you find interesting to me? Personally, I think this sort of thing is perfectly suited to iPhones and similar ilk (although magazine-style displays on the iPad are certainly gaining steam, too). Most days, I probably have 15–20 minutes of idle reading time, standing in line–ups or waiting for something. Once I’ve gone through my limited feed subscriptions in NetNewsWire, I’m pretty much at a loss for what to read next. A lot of people have had success with Instapaper, but that requires an upfront investment in figuring out what to read. A service like Readshout is just perfect for this: “show me something interesting with no effort, please.”

At this point, the audience is entirely nerdy, so the articles are heavily skewed in that direction, but expect that to change as the user base grows. Watch that happening by following them at @readshout, and wish them luck.

OhLife wants you to remember your life:

It’s sort of like a private blog, but very lightweight and with an interesting hook: rather than you going to OhLife whenever you feel like writing about something, OhLife sends you an email every night at 8 PM, asking you what you did that day. The idea is that a quick email is pretty easy to write, even if you’re not in front of an actual computer. To keep things interesting, those “What did you do today?” emails include a random entry from the past. It’s a cool idea that might help engender some reflection.

I love this idea. I kept a blog pretty religiously about 5 years, but eventually, as I spent less and less time in front of a computer (and more time in front of a phone), I found that blogging was the last thing I wanted to do when I finally sat down with my laptop. Keeping my engaged by doing everything through email is a nifty idea.

I’m a sucker for a beautiful web site, and OhLife definitely fits the bill. The design is sharp and attractive, simple but with great details. I’m not sure how much of an audience is out there for this, but I can definitely imagine them gathering a devoted following. I can even imagine upselling people to physical products — OhLife journals, maybe, pre-filled with however many entries you’ve already written.

Follow them at @TeamOhLife.

Whereoscope wants you to know where your kids are:

Whereoscope is an iPhone app that monitors your kid’s current location, and lets you see where they are and where they’ve been. You can set up alerts of various sorts to let you know when they make it to a pre-defined destination, or if it seems like they’re not updating anymore, and you can even have it let you know if they happen to be nearby.

There’s a bit of a creepiness potential here — the idea of parents monitoring their child’s every move is a bit odd. However, for younger kids (who happen to be lucky enough to have an iPhone — spoiled brats!), this seems like a good way of giving them freedom to roam while retaining a safety net.

I think there’s a fine line to walk here, and the key is using this in exceptional situations, not watching your kids every move. Of course, whether the kids like it or not, it seems pretty inevitable that these sorts of services are going to take off.

Follow these guys at @whereoscope, and check out their Facebook page. 

KeyTweet wants to make sense of your Twitter stream:

KeyTweet rummages through your Twitter stream and tries to figure out what the most interesting links are — things that many people are talking about. At first glance, it looks like it does a pretty good job: two of the things it highlighted for me are wave and marriage, and that seems about right.

The interface is straightforward, if a little unpolished: click the Sign in with Twitter button, authenticate yourself to Twitter, and KeyTweet works its magic. It’s fast and easy.

I love it when software is clever, and sorting through vast streams of data offered by services like Twitter is only going to get harder as time goes on. If KeyTweet’s relevance stays good, and maybe gets supported directly in some Twitter apps, I can really imagine it catching on. In the meantime, watch for this space to heat it. It’s brilliant.

IActionable wants to bring game mechanics to, uh, everything:

IActionable is offering an API for developers to build around that makes it easier to add game mechanics to their apps. Events are pushed into IActionable, which keeps tracks them for users and awards achievements at certain thresholds. Sites can pull a complete list out per user and display them. It’s pretty straightforward. As a developer, the key thing here is that IActionable offers a model that makes sense for this and saves the hassle of trying to figure out a good implementation of this on your own.

The idea of bringing game mechanics to other activities isn’t new, but it’s certainly catching on. Wedoist (http://venturepimp.com/post/704962028/wedoist) offers project management with achievements, for example. I think this strategy has a lot of merit as an engagement tactic, especially during the crucial first few days of a new user’s experience.

Follow them at @iactionable.

Note: you’ll have to request access to get started with IActionable, but it’s a pretty straightforward process. The Venture Pimp just loves game mechanics, so drop me a line if you end up using IActionable. I’d love to see what you make with it.