AT&T Find Friends location service: USC Interactive Media Division Weblog

June 04, 2003

AT&T Find Friends location service

From the WSJ:

A colleague and I tested the Find Friends location service offered by AT&T Wireless Services. Find Friends allows users to keep tabs on each other, based on the location of the nearest cellphone tower, and includes handy city-guide listings to help users find a place to meet.
The service is limited to those who have upgraded to the company's newest phones and its mMode service plans, which count usage in kilobytes of data transmitted, not minutes. These plans range from an extra $2.99 a month for minimal users of multimedia services to $19.99 for heavy users.

May 22, 2003 11:59 p.m. EDT

New Cellphone Services Help
Find Friends and Places to Go

By TIM HANRAHAN
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE

Wireless companies have been pushing data services to boost usage of their cellphones and drive up monthly bills, which are under constant pressure from price-cutting.

These wireless Web services let users get news, sports scores and other information on their phones. Among the most interesting new offerings are so-called location-based services.

Location-based services take into account where you're using your phone in the physical world. They can give you names of nearby restaurants or hotels in an unfamiliar city, for example, along with a description, phone number and directions. You can also interact with users of similar phones.

These services are in their infancy, and it shows. They are fun, but so far are a little impractical; and they have complicated, costly rate plans. Still, they give us a peek at what's to come.

The service is limited to those who have upgraded to the company's newest phones and its mMode service plans, which count usage in kilobytes of data transmitted, not minutes. These plans range from an extra $2.99 a month for minimal users of multimedia services to $19.99 for heavy users.

AT&T Wireless has taken steps to protect users' privacy. For Find Friends to work, each user has to give permission for the other person to track him or her. Once permission has been granted, a person can choose to be "invisible" to specific or all users through easy-to-use menus. Moreover, every time a person requests to find a friend, a text message alerts the person being sought.

These steps help prevent Find Friends from being used, say, by a jealous ex-boyfriend or an overzealous boss.

We tested Find Friends using a Panasonic GU 87, which I used, and a Motorola T720, which my colleague Katherine Meyer used. Both phones had built-in Web access and location services. The Panasonic also came with a built-in camera that can send photos to certain other high-end phones (but not to the T720) and to e-mail accounts.

Getting a cutting-edge phone doesn't mean more-reliable signals or fast Web access; we were constantly waiting for connections. The Motorola's screen is straightforward, with three main buttons: Exit, Main Menu and Select. There's a thumb pad for scrolling and for switching between screens. The Panasonic has the same number of buttons, but crucial functions frequently change meanings and places, which led me to accidentally delete text messages. On both phones, it often isn't clear how to return to the main menu. It's less irritating to turn off the phone and restart.

After getting comfortable with basic functions, we tested how well we could track each other. Katherine headed off to a location in Manhattan, then text messaged me when she got there. I pinged Katherine's phone via Find Friends and it told me she was "near Washington Street & Bethune Street near West Village in New York, NY."

A taxi dropped me off at the intersection, but Katherine was nowhere in sight, which we had expected. Cell towers can be many blocks apart -- or miles apart in a rural area. Find Friends simply identifies the closest tower, which the company made clear. After several text messages back and forth, I found her at a restaurant just a few blocks away.

What worked best were the service's suggestions on places to meet -- near you, near your friend, or in between. Once you answer, "Meet Where?" by choosing a restaurant, bar, library or museum, to name a few on the list, plus the distance you're willing to travel, the phone gives you some choices.

When you pick a time and place, Find Friends provides a phone number for the location. Several times, it lets you opt to just call your friend -- a smart touch -- to finalize plans the old-fashioned way. But if you press on with Find Friends, it offers to set up the meeting for you, sending your friend the name of the suggested spot and time, which he or she can then decline or accept.

The next step, getting directions, can be time consuming, as you have to type in your exact location using phone keys. The directions I tested were accurate, but they assumed I was in a car, meaning some slight detours for users on foot.

AT&T Wireless sells spinoff products as well. Match Mobile, a deal with dating service Match.com1, allows daters to use their cellphones to message each other for an extra $4.99 a month. AT&T also offers premium city guides from 10Best for $1.99 a month, or 49 cents for 24-hour access. These give reviews of restaurants and nightlife in your area, broken down by cuisine, ambiance and other categories.

Location services are engrossing, but at this early stage, if you want to meet a friend, it's better to make a call.

E-mail me at tim.hanrahan@wsj.com2. Walt Mossberg is on vacation.

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105355745962282600,00.html

Hyperlinks in this Article:
(1) http://www.match.com
(2) mailto:tim.hanrahan@wsj.com

Updated May 22, 2003 11:59 p.m.

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Posted by sfisher at June 4, 2003 10:41 PM