Mobile 2.0 Mobile social networks

Pretty old article but I think it will be interesting to read.

Today I want to talk about mobile social networks. The term MoSoSo - mobile social software (mobile social software) is popular in the west. It looks somewhat strange that the word software is mentioned, but to participate in many mobile social networks, you need to download a special application that will provide the ability to communicate within this network to use its capabilities. Since a mobile phone is able to communicate with the outside world in many ways , there are several different types of social networks (it’s probably more correct to speak the western style of social mobile software). These networks make it possible to determine the position of a network participant and exchange messages.

• The first and most well-known mobile social network is dodgeball.com, which appeared already in the gray-haired 2000 and was bought by Google in 2005. In 2006, an analogue of catchup.ru appeared in Russia, but somehow it still does not come out of closed testing. By the way, I will describe the principles of operation of these and subsequent mobile social networks solely from the descriptions that I read on the Internet, since I managed to register (and install the application) only on one network. In networks of dodgeball.com type, a network participant getting into a certain place indicates the network (via SMS, wap site or application) about where it is located (country, city, place in the city (cafe, restaurant, cinema, etc.)), more With this reference to the location, he can search for network members who are nearby. A network user can send a message to those network members who are nearby (via SMS, wap site or application) and then continue to act at their discretion (to meet, communicate, and so on). As with any social network in mobile social networks, each user also has a profile, usually it contains its basic data (name, age, gender), descriptions of themselves and those people that you would be interested in. It is also possible to make friends. All these features allow you to conduct a very flexible search for interlocutors, you can search for everyone who is in a certain radius from you, you can only make friends, you can ask the network to show only those network members who meet your characteristics (for example, look for girls with pancake scythe and big breasts who are now in your area))). The main advantage of such networks is that they are the easiest to create, are supported by the absolute majority of phones (since wap can be used, and, moreover, clients work with these networks on most java phones). The main disadvantage is that the user must specify the place where it is located.
• Quite an interesting concept from the German network plazes. The network is built on communication through wi-fi access points and each of the points has constant coordinates, therefore, by determining which point a person is connected to, you can tell where he is. This network, however, is more likely not for phones, since so far very few of them support wi-fi, but for laptops and PDAs.
• The next type of mobile social software uses Bluetooth to communicate. I think the principle is clear, the application scans the available Bluetooth-enabled devices and allows the owners of the phone to exchange correspondence with their business cards. The search for network users is possible in automatic mode, that is, as soon as a user (any, friend or with certain profile characteristics) appears within the limits of Bluetooth visibility, the phone can give signals. By the way, there seems to be a service called bluelove, it allows you to search for partners for sex, as soon as there are two people with mutually satisfying profiles, the phones of both emit the same stupid sound, which allows you to become the first topic of conversation for shy people (sex hunting and shame to go))) people. The advantage of this kind of communication is that you do not need to manually set your position. The downside is that you interact only with the topic of people who are at a certain short distance from you. Also, the problem is that not all software models are suitable for phones due to the peculiarities of the implementation of Bluetooth technology in different phones.
• Well and so far the least used method for the organization of mobile social networks (although the most functional) is the use of gps-navigation. Everything is very simple here - you don’t need to set your location manually and all network members have more or less defined coordinates at any given time, regardless of the distance to you. The main problem is that gps-navigators wi-fi is also not particularly common on phones. However, some networks offer to buy a starter kit to work in the network at a super price (like some kind of Motorola for $ 45), though only for residents of the United States.

The ideal option is when the location is determined using gps. Communication is possible both through the servers of the network itself and at close proximity via Bluetooth, for the exchange of photos and videos for example. This is what concerns the technical aspects of interaction (location and information transfer). Now with regard to the opportunities provided to users. The two main points are the search and profile .
A profile is a projection of a real person, that is, it allows you to get a certain minimum of information necessary to continue communication. It is clear that there is no way anywhere from friends, that is, the unification of users according to a certain principle - personal acquaintance, common interests. By the way, the profile helps to know the current location of friends - the profile should have the ability to display the current position of the person and his status (ready to communicate, busy, in general, as in Internet pagers).
And the search allows you to find new friends, that is, the search allows you to search for a person by his location and profile content. It seems to me that the main difference between mobile social networks and social networks on the Internet is that it is based on the principle of human mobility, which means that a person is not looking for information, but is looking for people who are near to meet them at this particular moment.
These networks are not for finding friends by correspondence, but for finding friends (well, or not quite friends)) for doing something right here and right now )

Original on my blog .