Social Networking Goes Live with Loopt.com

The buzz of social networking continue to evolve and disperse in innovative and technology-enhanced ways. From PDA’s to laptops, social networking enthusiasts can enjoy staying in touch and staying mobile; there’s no easier way to pick up the latest news and events than by tuning into your local wireless network in your closest city or town. For those who many not live in or near a city or wireless-computer connected region, a new take on wireless networking is picking up speed from the East Coast.

Californians are getting their hands on a new site called Loopt.com. This Web 2.0 company provides a ‘mashup’ of Google maps and MySpace.com-style profiles, allowing users to find locations automatically for their friends and connections. Events and places can be mapped directly into the online interface, and details instantly popup on your cell phone! Consider it the paging system for today’s web culture; traditional pagers are no longer needed, as your cell phone serves as the handy device to locate and pinpoint your exact location to share with your network!

If you aren’t too keen on the GPS-enabled system to ‘find’ you, it’s completely permission-based. The only way your friends and network can find you is when you literally ‘put yourself on the map.’ Loopt.com allows users to add a picture, details of their calendar or location, and any other messages at any given time, on any given day. Making yourself unavailable is as easy as doing the same on your instant messenger or other online messaging system. The only difference with loopt.com is you do it directly on the website.

Loopt.com is perfect for those weekends when you’re out on the town, and are planning to catch up with groups of friends who are involved in different activities. It works well on campus, where college students can track their network’s activities for a given period of time, map out their next destination, and plan meet ups to send invites. Loopt.com may be a great way to stay in touch with loved ones on a long trip, or simply provide a live ‘play-by-play’ to friends and family on your next roadtrip exploit! Answering the question ‘Where are you?’ now offers unique and fun ways to get the answers with the capabilities of social networking technology.

The Loopt.com website explains step-by-step how you are turning your cellphone into a ‘friend finder.’ The more friends that join (the service is free), the easier it is to track your friends and create your own networking database. As more people begin to use the service, we can see a new territory of GPS-enabled pinpointing and locators hitting the wave of networking on the go. People no longer have to sit at their desktops and computers to update profiles or find information; the value of a wireless-enabled cellphone are allowing for great new ways to connect, track, and live out the social networking phenomenon in the ‘real world!’