Web Buzz: GiddyUp app for planning events and meal meet-ups

Plan a private event, ask a friend to lunch or gather a large gaggle of people for a public meet-up — all from your smartphone or device. Great for business or leisure.

Name: GiddyUp

Available for: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Android

What it does: Lets you organize events by inviting contacts on your iPhone, iPad, Android, and Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Cost: Free

What’s hot: It’s liberating to skip the back-and-forth email chains when planning a lunch or party. With GiddyUp you can eyeball who is attending, use the chat feature to decide on a location or other event detail, and keep the date, time and location info in one spot. It will be even better when push notifications are an option on a future update.

What’s not: If GiddyUp and Yelp had an app baby, I’d be really happy. I tested this app while on a road trip and didn’t like having to use Yelp to search for a good restaurant before I could fill out the event location info on GiddyUp. And because I’m more likely to use it for inviting someone to lunch or a meeting than a big party, it would’ve been easier to type in a city and toggle among coffee shops, bars and restaurants to pick a meeting place rather than having to know a name or address ahead of time.

Worth it: I can’t stop using it. Those who are less app-savvy should read the FAQ before browsing and check back frequently if they get stuck the first few times.

—Jen Leo