What Is OnWander.com?

In the past couple of days, I’ve been seeing posts from friends on Twitter and Facebook that say things like, “Wander is launching soon. Sign up now and reserve your username before someone else does.” I finally wandered over to Wander. What is Wander?

I have no idea. And I registered anyway.

There’s a Twitter page and a Facebook page, each with a single message:

“Not all those who wander are lost.” Find your way to onwander.com and reserve your username

There’s a blank Tumblr site. What there isn’t is any indication what you will eventually be able to do with the site. In fact, most of the references I’ve seen to it look something like this:

Once you register, you get an email that tells you, “Wander is all about the places that capture your imagination.” About them how? Is this photo sharing? Pinterest for locations? Or maybe the Lord of the Rings “wander” reference in the single social media message they’ve given us is a hint that this is like TripIt for fictional places?

It’s a fascinating website launch so far. There’s a pretty splash page photo (with an invitation to submit your own with the possibility of being rewarded with “the ephemeral fame and minor glory of having had your photo randomly shown on the Wander splash page”). And other than that, all there is is “The Utterly Pointless Leaderboard,” where you see how many points people have earned for telling other people about Wander. You get 50 points for friends who sign up and 100 points for every tweet or Facebook like. The top leader has more than 10 million points. I have 172, all from mindlessly clicking the cow at the bottom of the page (1 point) while I was waiting for someone.

So I’ve given away my email address and reserved my username in exchange for the privilege of telling my friends to do the same in order to gain points that have no real purpose. Social media boiled down to its basic atoms. Now that’s a launch. And what the real payoff at the end of this exchange is remains to be seen. But people still keep clicking.

Ready to sign up? You can use my Wander link. I’ll shamelessly admit to wanting your points. I just can’t explain why.