iPling - first iPhone-only location-based social networking service

It didn’t took much time for the first iPhone-dedicate social networking site to launch. Basically, iPling adds a “location twist” in the mobile social networking and targets iPhone users only. The new service is designed to allow iPhone users to discover and communicate with people who share similar interests (i.e. love Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)). Registering is free, and as far as I see, you could try it out to exchange your initial iPhone experience with the similarly-minded people. Otherwise, you could wait for the iPhone optimized versions of MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites that you currently use.

Full release after the break.

SAN FRANCISCO - Today iPling announced the launch of its innovative, location-based social networking service optimized for Apple’s iPhone.

The iPling community can utilize their iPhone to discover and communicate with people who share similar interests, no matter where they happen to be. “Community-building has been hindered in the past few years by worries over security and protection. People have become anxious about opening up to new, real-life relationships and experiences,” says Manuel Monroy, founder and CEO of iPling. “We believe a large number of us are ready for a change, so we created a set of tools that will inspire confidence and encourage folks to open up and get together. iPling,” Monroy adds, “is all about openness.”

Social expansion versus social networking

Social networking has, up to now, relied on invitation systems. iPling changes the status quo by giving complete strangers the ability to find each other and interact with the confidence that they each control their own information and the experience itself. Until now, there has simply been no way to connect with others based on their proximity and interests unless they are already friends or friends of friends.

Registering with and discovering people using iPling is free. While logged in, users can easily create one or more profiles based on their interests. These profiles consist of keywords or tags relevant to each of that user’s interests. Each interest profile is assigned a color. Your professional profile may be red, your rock-climbing profile may be green and your book club profile could be purple. When these profiles are active, users can see others around them with whom they share common interests — the color of someone nearby tells you which of your interest groups they match up with. If a user wants to communicate with one of these matches, they can do so securely by way of an anonymous SMS message. To protect users and avoid unwelcome encounters, personal information is secure and kept confidential.

Monroy says, “You’d be surprised by all the amazing people that you pass by every day that could enrich your life. As the world goes mobile, we feel the time is right to introduce our services. And we couldn’t ask for a better platform than the iPhone.”