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DodgeBall – another mobile social network

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By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 at 8:40 AM

While we don’t see many of the new pure desktop web-based social networks appearing these days, the mobile social networking space is booming as never before. We’ve already covered several such services in the past, and today we’re presenting you with DodgeBall.

DodgeBall

Just like some of the services we’ve seen before, DodgeBall relies heavily on SMS to allow users with virtually any mobile phone to schmooze while on-the-go. In addition to “standard feature set,” the new service provides users with some kind of rating mechanism giving you an ability to “fancy someone” on scale between 1 and 5 crushes. That being said, I can easily envision DodgeBall’s key selling point being the mobile dating, and not just chatting and exchanging emails with your buddies. The system also has the location component built inside, hence it can inform you when someone with enough “crushes” is in the neighborhood. Let’s just hope stalkers won’t use it. ;)

UPDATE: I’ve almost forgot. DodgeBall has been recently acquired by Google, and now you can login using your Google account.

[Via: Great Dating Services]

About The Author

Dusan Belic

Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.

  • dusanb

    It’s not that new, I just spotted it recently.

    And I would argue Google is where great services die. Writely as Google Documents for instance is now better and more used than ever before.

    Plus, I wouldn’t point to Alexa for any data. They are so irrelevant.

  • Karen

    I myself though have never used Google Apps, GTalk, GMail or any other Google software besides search. And I’m pretty technical and enjoying trying out new apps.

    I think another thing to consider is that a lot of people still don’t know what a social network is, let alone a mobile social network.

    Dodgeball was decent in its conception, but there are far better mobile social networks out there.

    The reason why I mentioned Alexa is because Google never gives its “true” numbers to the public regarding its aquired apps. Quantcast or SiteMeter would easily tell one how a site is doing. Alexa is not the greatest or the most accurate, but they are pretty consistent.

  • Karen

    Oh and btw, link 5 of related articles points to a “mobile social network” called peekamo that has an interesting twist. They use “free text” as a means to promote their social network. I joined, its interesting so I’ve added it to my link as I think others should try it. It is probably the first social network that has provided me with more than just the “perceived” value.

    Its no dodgeball or jaiku, and far from facebook, but lets hope google doesn’t land their hands on this one, because its got potential.

  • dusanb

    No, I just tried using it, that’s it and decided to share info about it. Plus it was a slow news day… ;)