Gawker: valleywag, whatsopen

First Googlephone app launched by Sergey Brin's favorite startup

Owen Thomas — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 00:43:48 EST

Want to know what the Googlephone fuss is about? WhatsOpen.com, the first app to be built for Googlephones, has just launched in beta. The site looks much like the screenshots leaked to Valleywag last month: It's a local search engine which mashes up Google Maps with a directory of store's operating hours. Want a late-night coffee, or beer at 3 a.m.? WhatsOpen tells you which stores to go to. Here's a screenshot of the search results.

If you sign up for WhatsOpen's beta, you can get access to the software it built with Google's Android OS, the software brains behind your Googlephone. Oh, what's that? You don't have a Googlephone, you say? Pity.

Which raises the question: How did WhatsOpen build this app in the first place? It started with a chance encounter in October with Google cofounder Sergey Brin at the Web 2.0 Summit. Brin was overheard to tell WhatsOpen's founders to keep plans for the site quiet.

Why the secrecy? Because Google was getting ready to launch Android, and WhatsOpen seems to have been a perfect test for the software. A lucky break for a young startup.

Here's what's disturbing about WhatsOpen's preferential access: It says that Google plays favorites. While other developers complain about the buggy software development kit Google has provided, WhatsOpen has experienced smooth sailing. Could that be because it's getting a little help from powerful friends at Google?

Even so, Jason Aaron and the other team members at WhatsOpen aren't betting everything on Sergey's favor. The app is also available for Apple's iPhone — a device which, unlike the Googlephone, can actually be found in consumers' hands today.

Googlephone developers outed!

Paul Boutin — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:45:00 EST

Responding to my call for developers working with Google's Android phone platform, retrogamer Jeff Katz emailed to say he's porting his game, RoTwist, to Android. Paul Scholz went one better and emailed us screenshots of his rotating menus, seen after the jump.

And there's also WhatsOpen, the secretive startup that's a favorite of Google cofounder Sergey Brin. A source close to the company confirms the screenshots Valleywag ran show an Android app.

Developers of first Googlephone app playing down Google ties

Owen Thomas — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 15:34:52 EST

WhatsOpen, the stealth startup behind the first known Googlephone app, is quietly admitting to people in the industry that it is using Google's Android OS for cell phones for its mobile app which tells users which nearby stores are open. As the wags at Gizmodo noted, the killer app for Android is figuring out where to get a beer at 3 a.m. Other than that, WhatsOpen's secretive founders are anxious to downplay their ties to Google. After Google billionaire Sergey Brin was spotted asking a WhatsOpen executive to keep his company under wraps, people widely expected a noiseless Google takeover.

But the company is now telling people that the company is self-funded, and that it plans to launch a Facebook version of its mobile app, too, with a public beta for all its offerings before the end of the year. The likeliest translation: Google lowballed them on its first acquisition bid, so WhatsOpen is open to other offers. I hear Facebook has $240 million in spare change lying around.

Screenshots of first Googlephone app

Owen Thomas — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:25:32 EST

Remember WhatsOpen.com, the stealth search startup that piqued Google cofounder Sergey Brin's interest last month? Brin was so intrigued he told the founders to keep the company hush-hush. Now, however, a source has leaked screenshots of WhatsOpen's secret project. The company has a Web application which shows users nearby stores and their operating hours — "what's open." But I'm told by a source that WhatsOpen has also written the first wireless app for Google's new Android operating system. (You may know Android better as the software behind the still-mythical Googlephone.) Demo screenshots after the jump.

Google to tell you WhatsOpen?

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:26:05 EDT

Is Google looking to acquire WhatsOpen.com? A tipster tells us she overheard a young executive and his VC patron discussing the "secret local search engine" with Google cofounder Sergey Brin at the Web 2.0 Summit last week. Our tipster writes, "Sergey said the 'plans' looked good and not to say anything further about it in public." Right! Let's go with that. Is Google about to buy yet another unproven startup? And what about its technology has Brin so excited? Share what you know. (Photo by decadentyou)