The Zaarly iPhone app is now available to the wider community and this provides a platform to get people to do things for you in exchange for money. Get your head out of the gutter, as this is aimed at menial tasks that you either don’t have time to do or just don’t want to do.
The service essentially creates a local marketplace for actions that can be accessed through the web or through mobile. Let’s say you’re running late coming home from work and you absolutely need someone to pick up your dry cleaning for the next day, you could whip out the Zaarly iPhone app, pump in how much you’re willing to pay and then farm it out to the community. You can use cash or credit card to secure the transaction and certain transactions can even be done completely anonymously.
I downloaded the Zaarly iPhone app on my iPod touch and started browsing the listing for the San Francisco Bay Area and it came up with some interesting tasks. One listing asked for two croissants from a local bakery, while another asked to wax the person’s car. Each listing comes with a price, distance from you and a deadline to get it done.
In many ways, it’s similar to the Gigwalk program but it is much broader in scope. I actually don’t like how you have to give your phone number for just signing up but it will be interesting to see how this plays out. It just launched today, so the listings are still pretty sparse but the service will need to gain a large audience to actually be useful.
The Zaarly iPhone app is a free program that is available today from the App Store and HTML5 mobile sites means you’ll be able to access it from other types of devices. Check it out and let us know what you think.
[Via Zaarly]