Bimble is like Spotify, for Places
by Keiran Peyton
Music streaming services like Spotify are fantastic. You can combine the songs you love in any — as many — ways as you like. You can connect with friends, and search for others’ playlists; be recommended songs and genres; view Spotify’s own curated playlists for inspiration. But Spotify doesn’t produce music. It’s simply an innovative way to let you use it and explore your own tastes.
That’s exactly what makes Bimble so special.
How do you store places? In your memory? Mine’s like a sieve. As screenshots — disparate and lost in your camera roll amongst photo shoots, family outings, and occasional memes? If you’re anything like me, it’s probably an inconvenient amalgamation of things, which inevitably leads you to forget that nice pub you went to last year, or that park a friend recommended. And whilst that wonderful combination of nostalgia and novelty, on remembering or rediscovering a place, can be immensely satisfying… it’s also immensely inconvenient.
Enter Bimble
Bimble is Spotify… for your places. It’s your own personal bookshelf. It’s like your ‘History’, ‘Saved Videos’ and ‘Watch Later’ on YouTube, but for the places you love.
It’s a place — your place — to store… other places. As many as you like, and however you so choose. You might have a playlist for Jazz, and a playlist for Disney songs. In the same way, you can make placelists, called Bimbles. You might have a Bimble, for local music venues, and a Bimble for those vegan restaurants near your Airbnb. You might look at your ‘History’ tab to find a certain video, or simply for nostalgia, and your ‘Watch Later’ to see what you saved for yourself — on Bimble, that might be your favourite spots, and a Bimble for places recommended by friends. And I use the word might purposely — because there’s as many ways to make Bimbles as you see fit, and only those that you do see fit to make will be right for you.
I like to think of it in terms of a bookshelf: the books you choose to keep at home are yours, and distinctly for you. You might not have read them all; perhaps you’re saving that one for when you get the spare moment you’re always chasing — maybe the one next to it was given to you, or recommended, by a friend. But they all belong to you. You chose to keep them. In a word, they’re personal. And so are places, which seem almost to cease existing just as spots on a map once you’ve built a connection with them. Passing a park could remind you of your parents; a record store, a sibling; a café, your closest friends. A pub, and the excitement that you might soon get to finally step inside. The places we love are imbued with our own personalities, treasured memories that we keep — and Bimble provides a place to keep them. And not for any other reason than because you want to keep them, to hold on to them, because they’re precious.
I’ve collected my places into Bimbles, focusing on what matters to me and including the coolest place I have ever eaten in my life (hint: it’s in my London list ☺️)! Take a look at my Bimbles here.
