The Towson Chamber of Commerce is promoting Towson Tipster, a new app for cellphone users that cost $10,000 to $12,000 and launched in mid-March.
It covers about 400 entertainment businesses, from restaurants and bars to retail stores and fitness centers, as well as information about a variety of services, from ATM machine locations to local taxicab companies.
Tipster has been out for about a month and so far has been downloaded by 100 Towson chamber members. The app was developed by Columbia-based Hyper Media Corp., with creative input frrom the chamber, said Hyper Media President Andrew Balto.
"I'm pretty optimistic," said Brooke Bianchetti, executive assistant to chamber Executive Director Nancy Hafford. Bianchetti, who helped design the app, said she envisions it as being "a tool for finding local businesses."
Although the Tipster app focuses mainly on entertainment-related businesses, it also includes businesses such as hospitals, nail salons and auto care centers and is broken into categories, from Nightlife to Dessert to Services.
In fact, the app is open-source, allowing anyone to upload descriptions and photos about their business or create their own page.
"We're kind of like Wikipedia," Bianchetti said. But she said the app can't include all businesses, because, "It would be too much for the chamber to handle."
Balto said he hasn't looked at statistics yet to see how the app is doing and that its success will ultimately be "subjective." But he said what feedback he has gotten has been good.
"We really haven't gotten any negative feedback," he said.
Hyper Media and Bianchetti serve as site administrators, "in case somebody did something unsavory," Balto said.
Bianchetti said the chamber is now looking into doing advertising sponsorships with businesses.
One early user is Chuck Connolly, a Farmers Insurance agent based at 6719 York Road. Connolly said he has used the app for everything from looking for a good breakfast place (he ended up at Towson Hot Bagels on Allegheny Avenue) to a good place to buy a birthday cake (he chose Graul's Market in Ruxton).
"It works pretty well," Connolly said, citing its ease of use but also its lack of well-rounded content so far, including no category for insurance agents.
But he said, "It's early and it's new. I've enjoyed using it."
The chamber has also updated last year's app for the Towsontown Spring Festival. That app, called Towson Fest, launched April 1. This year's festival is Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3.
The retooled Towson Fest app has been downloaded 100 times. About 500 people who downloaded the first version last year can transfer it to the upgrades site, Bianchetti said.