Let's face it: With thousands of addicting mobile games and music aggregators, the app marketplace has become near impossible to navigate. But thanks to one American University startup, there's now an easier way to find those apps you just can't live without.
Candy Crush (you know you love it), Snapchat, WhatsApp, Spotify, and transportation favorite DC Metro & Bus are just some of the apps you can find on MyFydo, a mobile student startup bent on providing consumers with a more personalized and concentrated way to find the right app at the right time.
It was around the spring of 2012 when Russell Bar, Co-Founder and Director of Online Content, and Garreth Dottin, Co-Founder and CEO, developed the concept for MyFydo — Apple's first "There's an app for that" commercial catching their attention and leading them down the path to launch their own take on the catchphrase.
Equipped with the idea to combine daily to-do lists with valuable recommended apps, the duo realized there was an unmet need for a search engine that finds apps tailored to you. Current CMO Ryan Parker was then brought on to develop the site and make it more user-friendly, and voilŕ, MyFydo.
Here's how it works.
Say you're heading to the doctor's office because you found some unidentifiable raised, itchy bumps scattered across your body. You type the phrase "doctor's office" into MyFydo's Activity Board, and then it recommends apps that will assist you. For example, your results may include apps like WebMD (who doesn't want to self-diagnose prior to seeing a real professional?), while also providing you with a taxi hailing app like Hailo to ensure you've got transportation covered. Other apps like Fun Run, Vine, Twitter, and Netflix may pop-up as well to help you pass the time in the waiting room.
For their searches, MyFydo uses Quixey, an API. As Dottin explained, it's a search engine company that specializes in comprehending the natural human language. Based on user feedback from search, they're able to really hone in and change tag words related to to a user's search in order to give them more personalized results.
And, if the results aren't up to snuff, users have the ability to downvote results. So if MyFydo notices enough downvotes for results, they can add other keywords to the results in order to give users more fine-tuned, contextual responses.
What really stands out about MyFydo, at least in my opinion, is that it has its own version of Microsoft's paperclip — you know, the "office assistant" that would be at your every beck and call. Well, the paperclip has switched allegiances and moved to MyFydo, this time in the form of a St. Bernard. The cute little pup fetches your apps for you, making the whole user experience all the more entertaining and quite honestly fun. Dogs are a man's best friend after all, so what better search assistant to have than that?
Right now, MyFydo's main demographic is 18- to 28-year-olds, which makes complete sense considering their strategic plans for the future. Parker said that they intend to expand from campus to campus, starting with American. They also have an extensive post campaign in the works, posters that can be seen at bus stops and the back of toilet stalls alike, the idea being that if you're bored and don't know what to do, MyFydo is there for you.
If you're like most smartphone users who can't wait to get the next in greatest and latest apps that will make their lives better, easier, and all around more productive, then MyFydo's the site for you.
