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I like the simplicity of it and bet that pet lovers will get excited about this. I signed up and put my dog into the mix for judgement :)
I made a series of dedicated apps for specific verticals a few years back and if you can find a great community, even around 1 category, you can do very well.
Happy to answer any questions folks may have!! This is the first experimental app by our new team at BuzzFeed. @chrisjohanesen wrote this post about our larger thinking on apps/experiments: http://www.buzzfeed.com/chris/wh...
@rrhoover I wish I could say we built this in less than a week, but I *would* be lying : ) But it did come out of a very quick sprint of a couple of weeks, and it's a similar approach we're planning to take on future apps. The basic inspiration was a part of the BF website from a few years ago that had been really popular (http://buzzfeed.com/cuteornot), and then thinking about how much more amazing the experience could be natively on mobile where visual creation and engagement is so much easier.
In terms of the big decision re: trying something new vs. continuing to invest, this is something we're still very much discussing, especially as it relates to experimental apps. One nice thing about being a larger media company is that we have some flexibility, where we can have a dedicated stable of core apps (e.g. the existing BF app, the future News app, Video app, etc.) and then also separately run independent experiments. And as a content company, an app experiment isn't about swinging for the fences to create a new network (e.g. a new SnapChat or Instagram) — instead we see apps as forms of interactive content that can be designed for specific audiences/communities.
What is the cool thing about this is how publishers are delivering richer, dedicated experiences for consumers. I'm into it.
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