Loopt With Pals? Social Mapping and Smart Presence services are the next rage

Considering that the Internet and the Cell phone are the fastest adopted technologies, it seems only logical that services and applications mushroom in these areas. In line with the expected predictions, remember what Dave Haskin said some time back: “Smart presence” is bound to come to a mobile screen near you.

Loopt is a Palo Alto based startup, providing “social mapping” service, using GPS to show you where your friends are by automatically updating maps on your Java mobile handset. Founded by Sam Altman and Nick Sivo, both Stanford students, it was known earlier by other names such as Radiate and Flipt. Launched on Boost Mobile, Sprint Nextel’s GPS-enabled iDEN teen-focused-network, this service will be available on other US carriers soon. A new version of the software was released last month, which includes a ‘journaling’ feature allows Loopt customers to photograph, write about, and geo-tag their favorite spots to share with their friends.

Although it sounds rather cool, Loopt is not the pioneer in this area. Dodgeball (now owned by Google) is the real pioneer who has been trying this out since 2000. And boy, there is competition: Jaiku, which is based in Finland and, there is Helio, powered by SK Telecom and Earthlink. But Loopt is gaining attention. Their mashup using Google maps and MySpace-like profiles seem to be paying off. At the recent ‘Under the Radar‘ event, it won the Social Messaging category, selected by both - judges and audiences.

Loopt is powered by Series A, $5 million funding (Sequoia Capital, New Enterprise Associates and others). Since it ties up with the carriers, it is bound to make money. The service is free through the end of the year. After that, it will cost $3 a month. It already claims more than 40000 users as of November 2006. It hopes to turn a profit next year.

Such services are inevitable. One can imagine a plethora of situations when such a feature could be useful or even vital. In case of a disaster, it could be life-saving. It could become a ‘cannot-be-turned-off’ feature that reassures you where your kids are all the time. A detailed version could show where a particular doctor is in a big, sprawling hospital. And of course, even though it is ‘opt-in’ with lots of safety buttons, it will throw up new privacy questions.

Further Reading:

On TechCrunch post
PCMagazine’s review of the Loopt service
Mention on Mashable
CNNMoney’s coverage of Loopt announcement available through Sprint
Loopt’s own blog