Shape Services was showing off a new geolocation feature for their chat client, IM+, back at CES. That update has gone live on iPhone, and is available as a free open beta on BlackBerry. then feature is called Neighbors, and instead of just being a way of keeping tabs on trusted sources that you already know, Neighbors is meant to be a discovery mechanism to meet new people in your area. Obviously there are plenty of privacy concerns with something like that, but you can set how specifically you share your location. There are features built in to buy and sell stuff locally, which is one good use case for the app, but I’m sure it’ll be great for getting an idea of what’s going on at big events, or even dating.
Location-based social networking still has a lot of different angles to be worked; Google is going with Latitude, so you can track trusted friends down to specific GPS coordinates; third party developers are still exploring check-ins, so transmitting your location is done on a proactive basis, and those check-ins leave a trail of useful tips and information that others can interact with. Adding instant messaging to the mix is a fresh take, but its usefulness will depend entirely on how many people actually make use of the new app – there’s not much point if it’s just you and the same one other dude in town that uses Neighbors.
If you want to give it a shot and see who else is on Neighbors, you can download it in the iPhone and iPad App Store below, or sign up for the BlackBerry beta here.