What place is the buzz around you?

When you’re on the go and want to know what places around you are happening, text Buzzd to receive information on the hottest venues near by . Buzzd is a location-aware mobile social network that adds a time sensitive dimension to give its users information on nearby events that other members are attending or recommending.

Buzzd users can find out what nearby events and venues are happening by simply entering their location through a computer or mobile phone WAP browser. In addition, users can register to the service, set up default location, post venue recommendations, check into a venue and message other members, become friends of other users and receive a text message when their friends check-in at a venue.

When using the service we were a bit disappointed. Buzzd is basically a web site formatted to fit mobile phone screens and it doesn’t use any location-aware technology. Users are required to enter their location and need to drill down several times in order to get venue information and recommendations. With the current mobile phones’ browsing speeds, this can be frustrating. Adding a text message service where users can text a location and receive a text back with the top five nightlife spots nearby would be a tremendous improvement.

Event and venue information provided by external vendors is too long to read on a mobile phone browser and user-generated recommendations tend to be old and written in a hard to understand language. Most of the venues we saw were sponsored and users can’t know which content is sponsored until they click on the link. When we tested several different New York City zip codes we got the exact same results regardless of neighborhood, anyone who has been to NYC knows that the East Village and Meat Packing areas are very different.

The “Buzz It” feature, which sends users a text messages whenever their friends check-in at a venue is great but has no customization option and can become annoying when your friends decide to check-in to venues in the middle of the night while you are asleep.

A service like Buzzd is a great idea and targeted at people looking for nearby things to do or places to go to. Currently the service’s implementation is lacking and the user experience must be improved. If Buzzd is attempting to be the premier source of nightlife information for people on the go, it should offer its users a more simple and friendly way to get local information.