Disqus
NearYoo is a strange service. The “strange” part comes from the fact that it wants to bring location-based services to regular mobile phones, which lack GPS. Moreover, they are not relying on cellular triangulation, but leave it to the users to say where they are at the moment.
NearYoo bets that the wide popularity of the hash tag (#) will make users also use location tags aka “locatags“.
For instance when you want to say that you’re going to Barcelona, you would type:
I’m going to >Barcelona
NearYoo‘s servers would then process “>Barcelona” and add your location to the map, so that other people (your buddies) could see where you are through a web interface. Their plan is, if they succeed, that these new tags become a new habit of mobile users.
If some large company backs them heavily I could maybe see this flying in emerging markets. Otherwise, I doubt people will prefer to use SMS over a graphical user interfaces for their social networking, but you never know…
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.
