Updated Sept. 1, 2011: A previous version of this blog post left out breed-specific details.
Fido Factor helps connect dog lovers with dog friendly locations and services — its tagline is “Your life with dog.” It’s sort of like Yelp.com for canines.
Users can submit dog friendly locations (such as parks, restaurants, bars or pet services), including name, phone number, address and a description. Visitors can also review existing locations, add photos of their pets and participate in a discussion forum.
The San Francisco-based start up that launched June 26, 2009 features more than 50,000 dog friendly locations across the country, with the majority of listings in such cities as San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Boston and New York City.
Fido Factor’s Austin version has about 150 locations and growing.
Getting connected
Fido Factor uses Facebook Connect, a service that allows website developers to use Facebook’s log in system to tap into a user’s social network. Those who don’t have a Facebook account (or don’t want to use it), can create a free Fido Factor account.
Account holders can choose a home city, keep track of their reviews and location submissions, update and manage photos, select favorites and connect with Facebook friends.
Welcome to Fido Factor
A rotating carousel dominates the homepage, which includes featured locations, articles and user-submitted photos. When users pick a city to explore, the most recent reviews and added locations appear below the featured content.
Those who contribute the most reviews and new locations are featured in an area called “Top Dogs.” Same goes for submitted dog photos.
Finding and adding locations
Clicking on the “Locations” tab takes users to a Google map of the selected city’s center. The nearest 10 locations are indicated on the map with corresponding descriptions. Users can also browse categories.
To contribute a new place, click the “Add Location” button. After filling out the easy-to-use form, which allows users to include photos and a review, users submit the item for approval. A clever and useful sidebar called “Fido Factors” allows contributors to offer tips and include such dog-related features as if poop bags and water are available.
Submissions can be approved in as few as two days, but some take as long as a couple of weeks to approve. That’s because founder Garrett Dodge verify the details himself, often calling each establishment to make sure everything is correct.
Users can also correct items on the map. I submitted a correction for Opal Divine’s, which was a few miles off and on the wrong side of MoPac. I noticed the change was published after about three days.
Reviewing
When contributors add a review, it instantly appears on Fido Factor. Reviews should be dog-specific and those who use Facebook Connect have the option of sending the review to their Facebook wall. Reviews appear below the description for locations for which they are associated.
For every review or location added for the San Francisco area, Fido Factor makes a donation to The San Francisco SPCA in your name to support homeless animals in San Francisco. So far Fido Factor has helped raise more than $500.
Going mobile
A Fido Factor app is available for iPhone users, which provides the only way for users to upload “Pooch Pics.” The photos appear on a Google map showing where and when the photo was taken.
Users can rate and tag the photos for cuteness, funniness, coolness and helpfulness. Ratings influence what photos appear on the home page’s “Top Pooch Pics.”
An Android app is not yet available, but plans call for development to start on it later this year.
Those who don’t have an iPhone can visit the mobile version of Fido Factor to browse locations, but reviewing, adding photos and submitting new locations is not currently supported.
Bottom line
I give Fido Factor two dew claws up! The site has a ton of potential and its open system means every community can make Fido Factor its own.
The delay in getting submissions online can be a little frustrating, but remember: Dodge’s review process ensures all the info on Fido Factor is reliable and he pretty much works alone.
Log on, add some locations and tell Fido Factor’s online community what you think of the listed dog friendly locations.
Q&A with Fido Factor founder Garrett Dodge
Tell me about any dogs you care for and how they came into your life.
My wife and I move to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008. Shortly after getting settled in we got our Vizsla puppy Captain. We both like the outdoors and wanted a dog that we could take on all kinds of adventures. Some people think that Vizslas aren’t great city dogs, but honestly no dog should be left in an apartment all day. As long as Captain gets his two hours of exercise a day, he is happy to relax on the couch.
What’s your main occupation and how much time do you spend weekly on side projects, such as Fido Factor?
For the first year [Fido Factor launched June 26, 2009], I worked part-time on the business side of Fido Factor while my partner Ketu worked full time building the site. We love working on the site, but last year began to focus full time on our new social jukebox app Roqbot. Unfortunately, we haven’t had as much time to spend on new features for Fido Factor, but every week I approve dozens of new locations from our users. At some point we hope to add more social features and find time for an Android app.
What other web projects have you worked on or have planned for the future?
We also partnered with a website in the UK on a dog friendly app called Dog Friendly UK. Most recently we have been working on our jukebox app, Roqbot. With an active dog like a Vizsla I’m out discovering new dog friendly spots almost every weekend. Hopefully we can find time to make some updates to the site and the app this winter.
What inspired you to start Fido Factor?
On one of our first weekend trips with Captain, we went up to Muir Woods with friends. We didn’t think Captain would be allowed in so Kristen waited in the parking lot while I went in with our out-of-town guests. One of the rangers approached her and said that the dog couldn’t even be in the parking lot. I decided that finding dog friendly rules and places were too hard to find so I started thinking about a mobile app. A few months later, I met Ketu, who had also been working on mobile apps. We began working on Fido Factor. Initially we were focused on the Bay Area but soon expanded nationally and internationally.
Tell me about how people have responded to Fido Facto in San Francisco.
The response has been great. We were selected for a number of start-up events and have been in various media outlets. San Francisco loves dogs and technology so it was a great place to start things.
What’s been the biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge is finding the time! We were hoping to make a full-time business out of Fido Factor, but like many pet-related businesses, it has been mostly a passion project. We hope to continue to grow the site and make it self-supporting.
Describe the process you go through to vet submissions.
Every submission comes through to me. Many of them are incomplete, so I look up each business, add a photo if possible, and attempt to reach out the business owner. I try to approve locations a couple of times a week, although sometimes it takes a week or two. We’re looking into ways to make the process easier and faster.
How does Fido Factor deal with the various and growing breed discrimination?
In terms of breeds, we do add specifics like that in the tips. It is difficult to structure that kind of information into the drop down lists. As we’ve expanded the site nationally and internationally, we’ve found a number of specifics like that. For example, in Boston they mostly don’t even want dogs on the outside patio at restaurants but some places encourage people to tie the dog to the railing and others want the dog on the other side of the sidewalk. Rather than try to structure all this we leave it to the reviews. Users can also submit a correction to suggest we add that to the Fido Factor tips.
When did you launch in Austin?
We haven’t really had a city-by-city expansion. In late 2009 we added national support and have featured cities that have a good base of active users or that we’ve found time to build out ourselves. Austin is a very dog friendly city so it has been easy to add new locations and support our users there.
Do you plan to expand to other markets? Which ones?
We have over 50,000 locations right now. We try to add new places when we have time or are out exploring, but primarily we rely on our users. It only takes 2-3 passionate users in a city to help make the site great. When we started Fido Factor, we knew there were a number of good dog friendly books and websites, but none of them seemed to really be driven by the community. We wanted to create a site that was kept up to date and growing through user support.
What’s your measure of success for the various markets?
Simple, happy passionate users! We love it when people share Fido Factor with their doggie friends. We always want to find time to build more cool new features, but in the meantime, we hope Fido Factor is a place where you can add your favorite spots and find new ones.
Do you plan to release and Android app for Fido Factor?
We’d love to do an Android app but haven’t managed to find time. Hopefully we’ll find time this winter and are also looking for other developers that might be interested in helping.
Do you plan to add any additional features soon?
I’d love to add a check-in feature to help people meet up at the dog park and also integration with one of the location data sources so that people can focus more on the doggie details and less on the location info.
What’s your biggest hope for Fido Factor?
We want people to enjoy using the site. We’d like to get to 200,000 locations and better support users in other countries.
