Look, we all love looking at the gossip mags at check out (for the articles, or course) on what\’s happening in Hollywood but every community, whether it\’s a neighborhood, high school, college, or workplace has some local gossip going on. It\’s even better since it\’s right next door (literally). I may never meet Brad Pitt but I definitely know Doug from down the street and started to wonder why he was suddenly driving the red Porche and blasting Keisha at age 50. Hmmm. What\’s going on there?
There was no real way to know. Yes, local gossip\’s been around since…well since there was local. It usually passed word of mouth but isn\’t that a little slow in the era of the internet? Yes is the answer. Yes. The new Zipper app for your smart phone takes local gossip and makes it immediately available from everyone to everyone. We\’re not calling this a cure of Diabetes or anything but it sure is fun! Let\’s take a look at how the Zipper is going to bring local gossip back home and online.

First, what is the Zipper and why does it work so well for local gossip? The Zipper is a smart phone app (Iphone or Android based) that allows people in a certain geographic (that\’s the local part) area to exchange information without having a prior relationship (friending, twitter, etc). Let\’s face it..most of the local news information we want to really know about has nothing to do with our existing social network. Some stranger can tells us more about why that truck ran off the freeway than our friend Lisa. That\’s the Zipper. Now, your relationship is with the local news or information. You can quickly post zips or read info across different locations and channels (essentially filters). So, what about local gossip?

Local gossip is the juicy, fun cousin of local news. There\’s no reason we shouldn\’t be able to find out the goods on locals as well as our close friends in Hollywood. How do we do that? There\’s one issue. Let\’s say I know something juicy in my high school or local area but I can\’t have my name tied to it (which is usually the case with gossip)? How do I then post that local gossip tidbit on the Zipper? We took care of that. When you set up your Zipper account, you will have a handle and avatar (picture) for standard posts. Let\’s say traffic, deals, local news, etc. No problem. When registering, you will also have a anonymous handle solely for gossip posts. You can pick some random picture or use the system generated zipper pic but no one will now who you are and it\’s complete separate from your legit posts. How do we know if local gossip posts are creditable if they\’re anonymous?