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| CURRENT SECTION :: TechZone | UK's most visited IT Contractor Site - 250k unique visitors March 2008 |
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The most likely question people are asked when they answer their mobile phone is set to become a lot less common thanks to new technology. Launched in the UK this week, ‘sniff’ is a tracking service that easily and automatically answers the caller’s typical question ‘where are you’? According to its makers, it works by sending a map to the enquirer’s mobile phone and pinpoints the location of the person they’re after to the nearest 100 metres. In other words, anyone that signs up to the service can make their whereabouts known to any person so long as both parties have a mobile phone and are within the UK. Useful Networks, which trialled the service in Scandinavia, said that sniff is a “closed network,” meaning the person being sought has to give permission to be found. This mirrors the modus operandi of Facebook and similar social networks that let the user to decide who they want in their network; friends, family and perhaps colleagues. And Useful seems happy to sit with social media: wannabe users of sniff can register on the Social Network Integrated Friend Finder (sniff) via MySpace, Facebook and Bebo. On the web, users get a big map showing their friend’s location, while on the move their mobile will receive location info and a link to a map viewable via their phone’s web browser. Location is determined using the sought person’s mobile carrier network, but the person can evade all their sniff contacts by opting to go ‘invisible’ by sending a text message. Users can also become ‘unsniffable’ by going to their settings page via their mobile web browser or by hitting a toggle on Facebook. Useful hopes its UK service will attract hundreds of thousands of users, a realistic target given its tie-up with Facebook, of which the UK is the world's dominant user. Jun 5, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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