'Where Are U?' Track Friends On Cell Phone Map

location based services

Wondering where your friend is who's late meeting you at the caf? Or looking to hook up with a couple of pals who are out shopping or at a local bar?
A Silicon Valley startup is coming out with what it calls a social mapping service that could help you out.
Using location-based technologies, Loopt is unveiling the service that enables users to see where their friends are by automatically updating maps on their mobile handsets and on the Web. According to Loopt, the technology also lets users send messages to nearby friends and receive automatic alerts when friends are nearby.
Friends who opt in to the service would show up as dots on the map. Users would be given the option to text message them, send photos, or call. Users can send out updates of their own whereabouts, letting friends know they're in a meeting at the office or out to lunch.
Loopt has teamed up with Boost Mobile, a division of Sprint Nextel, so Boost customers can use the new technology. Available on Nov. 20, Boost Loopt reportedly brings geo-tagging capabilities to a major U.S. wireless carrier for the first time. The service's journaling feature allows mobile users to "geo-tag" locations and captures their experience with friends in their private network.
"Fourteen to 25-year-olds are committed to their social circles and constantly want to know where their friends are," says Craig Thole, a director at Boost Mobile.
Thinking that you don't want just anyone to track you on their own personal map? The service includes a variety of safety features and privacy controls, according to Loopt. For example, users must give permission for anyone to have access to their location.
Boost Mobile is offering Boost Loopt to its customers with Java-enabled handsets for free through the remainder of the year. Starting in January, the service will be offered on a pay-as-you-go basis for $2.99 per month, with the first 30 days free.
This service is similar to a mobile social-networking service that Google set up with technology it acquired when the company bought Dodgeball in May 2005. The Dodgeball technology relays text messages announcing users' locations to their friends, along with friends of friends.