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Launched just three months ago, www.loquo.com is establishing itself on Barcelona resident’s
list of favorite resources for renting an apartment, getting a job, language exchange, selling a
car, joining a class and just about anything else you can think of in between.
"I saw a need for a community resource like the San Francisco based Craig's list,
here in Barcelona" Ubaldo Huerta, programmer and founder of LoQUo, says. Of course there
are other resources out there, but what makes LoQUo different is that it’s very snappy and easy
to navigate. "We have a user-centric approach and try to get rid of all sort of unnecessary bells
and whistles", Ubaldo says, "especially those nagging pop up and flashy banner ads that have
proliferated all over the Web". It’s worth noting that there is no cumbersome registration process
with username and passwords. The service is available in Catalan, Spanish and English, and it’s completely free.
LoQUo is a very effective medium to facilitate information flow from person to person, particularly if you
want to take control of the information you want to provide. Say, for example, that you want
to announce a neighborhood party or a poetry reading without having to wait for the newspaper to notice you.
Enter LoQUo’s user contributed event calendar, where you can not only design your own events, but can also
mail them to your friends.
Adding to the overall value of the site, there is a series of discussion forums throwing up topics as diverse
as finding places to get hard-to-find herbs, making way for more bicycle lanes in the city and suggesting
ways to improve the site. There is a weekly newsletter (barna4free) with information about free or
inexpensive alternative events around town.
Along with Ubaldo Huerta, an ex-Silicon Valley software developer, there is a network of contributors working
on usability, graphic design and translation for LoQUo.
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