‘Tinder for memes’ will help you uncover the best viral content on the web

One of the best things about the meteoric growth of alternative media publications are the number of memes, gifs, and cute animal videos that flood our social media feeds. Need a picture of a smiling llama? Check. A motivational quote with an image of Leonardo Di Caprio? Check. What about a video extract from The Simpsons to characterize your feelings in a given situation? Check, check, and check.

If you like what you see, you swipe right.

But with the sheer number of crowdsourced information flooding the web on a daily basis, it can be difficult to sift between the inane and downright funny. That’s the problem Israel-based Waveit is trying to solve.

Simply put, the app is a platform for discovering crowdsourced home videos, memes, and gifs. Barak Finkelshtein, founder of Waveit, likens the startup to a “Tinder for quality content.”

“Waveit can be used to swipe for fun. It gives users the option to consume quality content in entertaining ways. If you like what you see, you swipe right. Otherwise you swipe left so we know this content isn’t matched to your preferences,” explains Barak.

Swipe right

Users aren’t asked for preferences on what they’d like to see. So there’s no need to answer an annoying survey on what categories you think would appeal to you the most. There’s just pure, unadulterated entertainment. When I started using the app I realized how incredibly addictive it is. There was interesting photography interspersed with videos of dogs pulling off incredible tricks. Offensive memes and witty GIFs were in abundance. I found it difficult to put down.

The only way to move forward and view the next image is by swiping left or right. There’s no option to simply ignore. Barak says that’s an important part of discovering individual preferences as well as determining whether the content itself is addictive, or spammy.

Anything a user ‘likes’ is then carried forward to the next user, forming a wave. Users can also save images or videos as part of a “favorites” list by swiping down and share it on other social media feeds such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp by swiping up.

Sticky

A gamification strategy is employed to encourage users to upload their own viral videos and share it with the Waveit community. The app notifies you every time you cross a certain number of likes, or if it is viewed by people residing in a different country.

“Content is based on the wisdom of the crowd. They are the ones which will decide whether this is good [content] and wave it forward or kill it by saying it is lame. If the rating is going down, if it doesn’t get enough swipes, we’ll remove the content,” adds Barak.