The newest addition to the local discovery app space, iPhone app Urbandig aims to help you find novel local experiences. In order to do this the team, which consists of former Myspacers Mike Macadaan, Danielle Lehman and others, has pulled in the domain expertise of local bloggers like LA Weekly assistant music editor Rebecca Haithcoat and Bay Area foodie Darya Pino of Summer Tomato in order to create theme-based tours like where to see amazing live music in LA or grab a taste of local SF food.
Co-founder Macadaan tells me that this expert curation is how the app intends to compete with the crowdsourced tips and recommendation function of apps like Yelp or Foursquare.
“We create original experiences by bundling curated locations and what to do once you’re there,” he says. He also highlights the fact that Urbandig, like the Village Voice’s “Best Of” app, focused on quirky activities like the “Cougar Dens” tour, spotlighting places to find “Cougars” (oh just Google it, and look for the Urban Dictionary definition) on the prowl in SF or “Hangover Heaven,” a run down of where to scoop up the best hangover food in LA. “It’s quality over quantity, in the expert’s uncensored voice,” he says.
Users can open the Urbandig app and browse through place collections for SF, NY, LA and Vancouver, sifting for tours through categories like City Gems, Drink, Film, Food and Music, or by curator and proximity. In addition to a brief tour description and curators notes on each place page, you can see each tour stop on a map, and also check into various spots on the tour via Urbandig.
Because an app would be nothing these days without some kind of social function, Urbandig allows you to save tours and places as well as share them externally on Facebook with friends. Following friends (by going to Profile and clicking on the settings wheel) will allow you to populate your feed with their activity.
Urbandig hopes to eventually support at least 30 locations expanding to Portland, New York, Austin, Minneapolis, Chicago and DC by the end of the year and also plans on coming to the Android in early 2012. The team is bootstrapped and angel funded.