BrightKite
A few weeks ago I got an invite to BrightKite, a location-aware social networking website. It’s alot like Twitter, but all of your posts and comments are attached to specific locations in the world. It works via their website, but also via SMS and various mobile apps (They just recently released one for the iPhone that I use).
Now, the first thing most people point out is that it all seems very "stalkery". Well, that’s true, but the data is only as accurate as you choose to make it. All of the "checkins" (where you tell Brightkite your location) are only as frequent and accurate as you want them to be. The mobile apps help with the accuracy, but it still requires you actually deciding to "checkin" at a location. Also, once you’ve checked in you have settings to control how much information other people see. Do they know exactly where you are? Do they simply know what city you’re in? Or do they know nothing at all? Do you broadcast your location to everyone? Or only to friends? All of these are configurable.
Aside from checking in, there’s the interesting idea of tagging notes to locations. When someone checks in near your current position, or posts a note or photo that’s linked to the location, you’ll get a notification (If the visibility settings allow it). This is a neat way to meet interesting new people, but it’s also an interesting way to share location-specific information. For example, landing at the Airport and posting a note saying "The Skylink is broken" and saving other BrightKite users some time. Or things like posting what food is good at a restaurant, or what foods to avoid.
It’s a pretty neat webapp, but I’m not entirely sure how much I’ll use it. It seems like something good to use for traveling, meeting friends and such, but for me it seems a bit overkill. [tag:brightkite][tag:web2.0]
