Down2Night, one of many sites that help you find and plan things to do at night, has beefed up its offerings
We reviewed the Seattle-based company last February, describing its offering of text alerts about events at your favorite night spots. Over the few months, it has expanded from two to 22 cities throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Its most interesting new feature is a "heat map" of your city showing you which nightspots are getting the most action -- using a Yahoo Maps mashup. See below.
Down2Night has taken elements from venue search sites like Citysearch and Yelp, mixed in the event-planning functions of Evite and added some rudimentary social network functionality -- all in the name of helping you get a better nightlife.
Aside from the overlaps with the sites mentioned above, Down2Night also faces competition from sites like MingleNow, which offers social networking around bars, and social event sites like Attendio and Going. Another, SonicLiving, focuses on music. Down2Night's combination of features and exclusive focus on nighttime activities sets it apart, but in such a crowded market, it's hard to see how the company will make any serious money.
When you search Down2Night for venues or events, you can filter the results based on the type of spot you want -- by using so-called "spot tags" (see screenshot below) For example, if you're looking for a singles joint, you can click "singles;" if you want to go where 20-somethings congregate, you click the "20-somethings" tag. There are spot tags for location, style (swanky, trendy, etc). If Down2Night has event information for the venue, it will appear below the listing.
Some people might find the site's interface, especially the spot-tags, to be a confusing. Also, while there are listings for a large number of venues, Down2Night lacks useful data on most of them, so there's usually no way to find out a venue's theme or whether or not it's rated highly. Down2Night is counting on its users to fill in the gaps, but without a large community contributing, this is a problem.
More significantly, we're not convinced that Down2Night's nightlife planning features are what people want. With the exception of concerts or major events, many nights on the town are executed on the fly, with whims (and alcohol) determining when and where venues get switched.
Down2Night offers basic social networking features -- like photo uploading -- intended to build community around your nightlife. One different idea is a "stamp" feature that gives you collectible "stamps" when you attend a venue and then contribute information about it.
Down2Night is missing more immediate mobile co-ordination capabilities, as well. Some Twitter-esque features could help immensely.
The company is currently self-funded but is looking to raise $1-2 million in the near future. It also now has a nightlife show on Justin.tv
See more at Mashable.
