Mobile Social Networking

Mobile Social Networking Sites All of the sites listed below share a certain set of features, which are common to all mobile social networking sites. They allow the user to create a profile, send and receive text messages via phone or computer, and visit an on-line version of the mobile site. Beyond that, there seems to be six rough models that the sites adhere to. The vast majority of them offer services that overlap heavily with other sites. Almost all of them claim to be unique, which isn’t a lie exactly… more of a bending of the truth. Most of these sites do have some unique feature or special function that other sites don’t share, but the main function of the site is the exact same as other services. A – The Group Texter This site focuses on the ability to send short, text-based messages to a large number of people at once. Whether it’s by SMS or micro-blog, this site wants to get your words to the right people as quickly and simply as possible. B – The Radar The Radar knows where you are and knows where your friends are. These sites really take advantage of the growing interest in location-based services by keeping track of the where your contacts are. If you’re sitting alone in a cafe and want to have a chat, this kind of site can tell you if anyone you know is close by. A lot of these sites also allow you to check if there’s anyone near a particular venue or location, and some of them will actively alert you if any of your contacts comes within a certain distance of you! C – The Geotagger These sites are all heavily location-based. They allow users to tag particular locations with images and information. These tags appear on a world map that’s accessible by any user, and some of them will alert you if you pass by somewhere that has been tagged by another user. D – The Dating Service These sites are almost identical versions of their on-line counterparts. Users create a profile and are matched with other profiles on-line. Some of these sites use Radar qualities, so that they ping you if there’s a matching single within a certain distance! These sites are also marked by quite serious security measures, being quite careful to ensure that no personal details (or your exact location) are released without your consent. E – The Social Networker This type of site tries to model on-line social networking sites as closely as possible. In many cases they are simply mobile portals of an already successful site like Facebook or Bebo. They offer an extremely wide series of functions, including multi-media posts, chatrooms, photo sharing, instant messaging and customisable web-pages. Many of them also offer inexpensive international phone calls and SMS for the price wary. F – The Media Share These sites are the video and audio version of the Group Texter. They are only concerned with sharing files as quickly and efficiently as possible with your friends and groups. Most of them store your phone content on-line so that your mobile doesn’t get clogged with large video files. Quite a few also accept streaming content from your phone and broadcast it automatically… very dangerous on those drunken nights out!