Mobile technology: Crossing mobile phones with social-networking sites would help people find friends, and potential friends, nearby
IMAGINE you are a woman at a party who spots a good-looking fellow standing alone in a corner. Before working up the courage to talk to him, you whip out your mobile phone. A few clicks reveal his age and profession, links to his latest blog posts and a plethora of other personal information. To many, this sounds like a nightmare. But to those building so-called “mobile” social networks, it is nirvana: linking virtual communities such as Facebook or MySpace with the real world. The idea is not new, but so far such services have not gained much traction. They have to be able to pinpoint people in order to work, but satellite positioning does not work indoors. More importantly, it is hard for such a service to gain critical mass: why join, if it does not already have many users?
A new generation of mobile social networks may have found ways to overcome these barriers. One is Aka-Aki, a start-up based in Berlin. Users of its service download a small program onto their mobile phone. The software then uses Bluetooth, the short-range radio technology built into many mobile phones, to check whether any friends or other members with similar interests are within 20 metres. If so, the program pulls down the person’s picture and whatever information he or she is willing to reveal from the firm’s website.
This works because each Bluetooth radio chip has a unique identifying code that can be used to look up a person’s information. To overcome the chicken-and-egg problem, Aka-Aki has made its software work on most phones and offers what amounts to free text-messaging between members in order to encourage take-up. In addition, Aka-Aki is also a web-based social network with a twist: to express their interests, members can create virtual stickers and share them with others, which then makes mobile matching easier.
Aka-Aki is still testing its service, which currently has only about a thousand members. How it will make money is unclear. But it does not take much imagination to see how the Aka-Aki approach could lend itself to advertising. Billboards or shops, for instance, could in effect become members of the network, and beam special offers or messages to other members as they pass by. (Already, Facebook’s advertising model allows companies to set up profiles for their products, which can then become “friends” with other members.)
If mobile social networks do take off, they are likely to do so first in Europe, rather than tech-happy California or mobile-crazy Japan. This is, perhaps surprisingly, thanks to regulators. European operators are required to keep mobile phones more open to software downloads, with the result that they can run programs such as Aka-Aki’s. (Google is pushing for more open handsets based on its new Android platform, but the first phones will not appear until the second half of 2008.) Many mobile phones in Europe also come with Bluetooth, because drivers there need it for their wireless headsets: talking directly on a mobile phone while driving will earn you a hefty fine in most countries.
Then again, Europe’s predilection for privacy could still emerge as a big barrier. Aka-Aki, for instance, has so far refrained from adding one feature that might cause quite a stir: the unique Bluetooth identifier could also be used to tag people, for instance, with unflattering comments. This would even work with non-members, as long as their handsets had Bluetooth switched on. Those wanting to remain incognito in this brave new world might soon have to turn off their mobile phones when arriving at a party.
Original post on http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10202690