George Rebane

We have all heard about online social networking – think MySpace and Facebook, etc – that is keeping our younger generations busy telling friends (the world?) about themselves and finding out about each other. Social networking is about to take another leap forward as we become ever more connected no matter where we are or go.  MIT’s Technology Review reports in ‘The Future of Mobile Networking’ that “IPhone users will soon be able to enjoy Whrrl, software that combines activity recommendations with real-time location data.”  In a few days

(w)hen Steve Jobs strides onstage at Apple’s annual developers conference on June 9, many will be expecting fireworks. Some industry analysts think Jobs will announce an iPhone upgrade, one that takes advantage of faster networks and includes new hardware, perhaps a GPS receiver. Jobs is also expected to demonstrate some third-party iPhone applications, available in June, which could include games that use the phone’s accelerometer as a control, new mapping software, and quick ways to update profiles on social networks such as Facebook or MySpace.

Whrrl is a mobile application to be offered by the start-up Pelago whose CTO Darren Vengroff says,

“If you think about your day-to-day life and how you discover things around you and places to go, to a great extent the source of that information is your friends,”  With Whrrl, a user can “look through the eyes of friends and see the places they find compelling.” The software begins with the user’s position on the iPhone’s map and indicates a smattering of nearby establishments. If the user’s friends have visited and rated these places, the software indicates that as well. The map also shows the positions of nearby friends who have enabled a feature that lets them be seen by others.

For some perspective on the launch of this new service I asked my friend and correspondent James Currier to share some thoughts.  James (more here) is a successful dotcom entrepreneur and a pioneer in web-based self-discovery and social applications.  He is also a keen observer of the socialization of the internet and sits on the board of Linden Lab, purveyor of the premier virtual world Second Life.  James says –

There have been startups pursuing this business since I got into venture capital in 1991.  I started out very enthusiastic about the vision of this, but the empirical evidence is that all those companies, and almost all location based services, have all failed in the intervening 17 years.  And it wasn’t 4 or 5 companies.  It’s been about 35 or more venture backed companies.  Now I’m a skeptic.  However, for some reason my spidey sense is telling me that the iphone interface, combined with google maps combined with widely implement GPS data, means that 2009 will be the year consumers start seeing this as a good use of their phone and use of the service takes off.  Will it make any money?  I think it could, to the extent that the interface helps take the user’s intention and directs it, rather than being a toy for browsing.  (There is a spectrum between searching  — like you do on Google or CraigsList — and screwing around — like you do on MySpace or Facebook.  The closer the interface makes the application to tapping into the search instinct of a user, the more money will be there to be made.)  However, because the idea of this service gives such glee to left brained men who love maps and data (and it always has since 1991), it will be way over funded and invested, so it may be hard for any of them to get big, unless Apple anoints one the winner.

Whether it’s this new wave of connectivity or the next one, I believe that *soon* we will become walking information portals able to call up, search, and perceive the world’s awesome data stores and real time information feeds.  We will do all this as amplified critters with such abilities embedded into our physical bodies.  The user interface will be through simple thoughts and direct stimulation of our respective brain areas or sensor (eye, ear, …) nerve bundles – check out the latest prostheses and contacts.  Then devices like the iPhone will truly become the Iphone.