June 24, 2003
Location-Based IM
From a recent Special Report on "The Social Web" on BusinessWeek Online:
On June 10, startup Trepia in Fremont, Calif., released its latest version of something called location-based instant messaging. The software uses a PC's IP address to identify the person's location -- as long as they're connected via technologies such as Wi-FI. Then, it uploads a list of people on the Trepia network onto the computer's buddy list, starting with those located nearby. College students would first see those among the 15,000 Trepia users who live in their dorm, then those living on campus, then those located in the same city, and so on.
The software could be used for striking up a conversation or helping a business traveler find other people attending the same conference, says Jawed Karim, Trepia's CEO. The startup plans to offer the service for free and charge for advanced functions such as searching through the buddy list, Karim says. Whether this marginal improvement will gain enough traction for Trepia to prosper is a long shot, however.
Posted by sfisher at June 24, 2003 06:47 PM
