Unlike Secret, Whisper made a deliberate choice not to leverage phone address books or social network social graphs. While the drama attracted users, it also made it more difficult for the startup to make money. It turned the site into a reputed magnet for industry gossip and harassment. Secret also squandered early growth with their decision to leverage users’ address books and push anonymous posts from other Secret users they knew through other social networks or real life. But it was slow to figure out the money side of things that and several badly executed business decisions sealed their fate. Targeted specifically at high school and college students, Yik Yak created geofenced anonymous message boards at different campuses. seemed poised to become the next great social network. Whisper notes traffic continued to grow in the 12 months following publication of the initial Guardian article.Ī few years ago, Yik Yak was the new next great thing. In the year following publication of the Guardian articles, Whisper “took a break from making PR a key priority” to concentrate on AI initiatives and audience development initiatives.
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An offshore & U.S.-based human moderation team also helps keep Whisper civil.
#Whisper app confessions buzzfeed software
Whisper’s algorithms and architecture are also designed to minimize harassing posts and, as our own Harry McCracken previously wrote, ferret out the “mean, gross, and/or illegal.” Through a piece of software called “The Arbiter,” the company keeps an eye out for more than thousands of keywords and other factors.
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Location information is tracked for advertising purposes, for instance (unless users choose to opt out), but there is no trawling of users’ address books or social network graphs. Posts from the geographically dispersed users can be sorted by popularity, proximity to your location, or how recently they were posted.