Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake launches Pinwheel

Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake has launched a new venture called Pinwheel.

The service, now in private beta, will enable users to "find and leave notes all around the world".

Pinwheel notes are affixed to a map on the user's device, and can be private, shared with an individual, distributed among a group, or public. Notes can also be organised into sets and uses to locate public services or places of interest.



Fake explained: "You can follow people, places and sets. And in the future, you will get notifications on your phone from who and what you choose.

"Following sets is useful, because that friend of yours with the great taste in coffee shops may also have an unhealthy obsession with, say, 1970s glam metal band Kiss, and frankly, in childhood you were traumatised by a photograph of Gene Simmons and don't need to repeat that in your dotage."

Fake sold Flickr to Yahoo in 2005 for $35 million (£22m). Her second venture, Hunch, was bought out by eBay in November last year in a deal reportedly worth $80 million (£50m).