Centrl Tutorial:
What is Centrl?
Centrl is a location-based social networking application that lets you become more aware of the world around you. In addition to being a free application available for the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android smart-phones, Centrl lets anyone sign in using a current social networking account. Centrl has three important and related features:
- Centrl lets you broadcast your location, see the locations of others, and interact with them by chatting or sharing map items.
- Centrl lets you search for information about your surroundings, such as the location of the closest restaurant or gas station.
- Centrl gives you access to valuable money-saving deals at businesses located near you. Find a deal you like? Save it and share it with friends.
Centrl Basics
Centrl displays locationally-relevant information on an interactive map:
Map Layers
Centrl accesses a variety of information that it organizes into transparent map overlays called map layers. Since map layers are associated with specific data sources, such as Wikipedia, map layers make it easy to control what types of information are displayed on the map.
Importantly, information will only be displayed from the map layer that is currently active. For instance, searching the Yelp layer for nearby restaurants will display the relevant information supplied by Yelp, but not Wikipedia, or any of the other sources.
To activate and search a map layer, click on the map layer button in the iPhone. In Blackberry and Android devices, select 'Map Layers' from the menu:
Map Markers
Each map layer represents information with icons called markers. There are four categories of markers:
People Markers
People markers identify your location and the location's of others.
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Your marker has a red border and identifies your location. You can change your marker's picture by going into settings. You can move your marker around the map and update your private location. | |
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Other Centrl have markers with blue borders. Click on their marker to add them as a contact, chat with them, or send them a deal or map item. | |
| Your contacts have markers with gold borders. | |
| A black disk below the marker indicates that this location is the user's private location. |
Clicking on someone's marker brings up a contact information bubble that displays the user's information and allows you to interact with them.
The contact information bubble lets you find a user's location, add them as a contact, vote for them, send them a gift, or chat with them for free.
Favorite Markers
Favorite markers identify the locations of favorite places, things, or events.
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Blue favorite markers indicate favorite locations of other Centrl users. | |
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Gold favorite markers indicate the locations of your favorites. |
Clicking on a favorite marker brings up the marker's information bubble. Like the contact information bubble, you can interact with the marker by locating, sharing, or, if it's your marker, deleting it.
Information Markers
Information markers identify the location of results from whichever layer you are searching. Each layer has its own corresponding marker and the specific markers displayed depends on which layer is active. For example:
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Yelp markers show the locations of user-reviewed restaurants, bars, shops, and more. | |
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Wikipedia markers identify the locations of subjects discussed in Wikipedia articles. | |
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11870.com markers indicate the location of Spanish language user reviews of everything from restaurants to igloos. | |
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Google Base markers show the location of items for sale on Google Base. | |
| Oodle markers show you where classified ads placed on Oodle are located. |
Clicking on the marker brings up the marker's bubble and lets you access the information the marker represents:
Click on the details button to pull up additional information about that marker's location, access additional Yelp reviews, read the full Wikipedia article, or link to an external site.
Keep checking back. We're adding new layers and markers all the time!
Deal Markers
A Deal marker identifies the location of a business offing a money-saving deal to Centrl users. Deal markers turn green when you save them as a favorite. You can tell what kind of a deal is being offered based upon the icon. For example:
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A food and drink marker could represent a coupon for a free appetizer at a local Thai restaurant. | |
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A shopping marker could let Centrl users know about a 20% off sale at a shoe store. | |
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An entertainment marker could indicate free admission to a movie screening. |
Just click on a deal marker to learn more about what that business is offering:
You can save deals and share them with your friends. Redeeming a deal is as easy as showing the deal to the business offering it.