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MyBlogLog and Bluetooth
April 16, 2008
We've speculated in the past about some cool ways in which Bluetooth can add a sprinkle of "location love" to already existing applications. For example, we've previously mentioned that when you add Bluetooth to (say) FaceBook client running on a phone, you get a potentially cool mashup: your fb app could now alert you to when other facebook friends are nearby (assuming they're running the same app of course) and all sorts of things could be triggered as a result:
- auto updates of status ("Sean passed Joe in the Office")
- offers to IM / message over Bluetooth on the fly ("Joe's nearby. Nudge him?")
- mini-gaming ("Joe's Androids wish to invade your phone. Fight?")
- and so on
Anyway - another datapoint arrives for this, in the form of MyBlogLog. They've mashed up Bluetooth location with a MyBlogLog client to let you see other MyBlogLog members nearby. As TechCrunch says, there are others doing similar things, also using Bluetooth - Imity, Mobiluck, Aka Aki are cited (some of the others are using GPS). Twinkle on the iPhone is using the in-built location function to show people on twitter who are nearby. All in all, the first wave of potentially engaging location apps are only now beginning to emerge; I'd expect a slew of them over the next twelve to eighteen months. Thereafter, we'll expect to see location as an element being considered in many apps - it'll no longer be a "whoah - cool!" feature.
All of which should be good for FireEagle.
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