WeFi: An Easier Way Of Finding WiFi
Duncan Riley
31 comments »
WeFi is aiming to deliver a better outside internet experience by making WiFi as easy to use as a cell phone.
WeFi was founded 18 months ago by Yossi Vardi, (formerly with ICQ), Arnon Kohavi and Shimon Scherzer. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, with an R&D center in Tel Aviv, Israel and has funding of $7.35million from Lightspeed Ventures, Pitango and Gemini.
The concept is simple: to offer a true internet experience outside the house, people need WiFi. However finding free WiFi can be difficult, which is where WeFi wants to step in.
The WeFi client replaces the Windows connection manager and finds and connects to free WiFi hotspots. The location of free hotspots is displayed on a map that also shows the location of other WeFi users. The maps are regularly updated as users discover and connect to WiFi. This is delivered without changing or modifying access points, delivering a complementary service to other WiFi sharing initiatives such as fon.
The mapping function is initially user generated. Users are encouraged to mark their location on a map and add spots to the map. WeFi can then ascertain the location of that user based on the known location of one of the hotspots that the WeFi client sees, without the need to be connected to it.
It’s a solid concept that will have a strong appeal in the United States, the land of the free WiFi hotspot. The idea of presence based social networking seems like an unnecessary distraction, but in the age of Lifestreaming and Twitter it will appeal to some.
The service is currently in private beta and will be opened to the public Wednesday. The following week, WeFi will announce Twitter support that will allow WeFi users to automatically notify their friends via Twitter the location and name of the network they are connected to.
Hmm - wouldn’t this make more sense tied into an existing social network like Plazes?
And Duncan - this is not the land of the free wifi - maybe in GoogleFrisco, but here in NYC, there are limited free spots - most coffee shops charge these days and the 1412414 Starbucks locations charge as well.
And we know using a person’s wifi for free can land you in jail.
Allen
compared to Australia it is, I can’t test the app, there isn’t a free hotspot within 200kms of me
Well get Mike to pay for a trip to California
Sounds like a concept that could work. It will be interesting to see how it develops.
what about la fonera - i got the modem sitting here but haven’t installed it yet… so the basic idea is that you put these modems online all over the world and as long as you share your connection, you can use any other shared connection.
why do these guys need $7.5 mil? is it for the jet to/fro tel aviv? I mean it’s a google maps mashup and a simple db right?
YES! I was hoping someone would provide this service sooner than later. Certain areas have their own fledgling maps and info regarding available spots, but this is obviously WAY better!
This is great. I wonder if it will be available in most countries?
Remember, using open access points can get you arrested. Wonder how WeFi will handle the resulting lawsuits.
http://yro.slashdot.org/articl.....23/1551227
http://hardware.slashdot.org/h.....amp;tid=17
The land of free wifi is Estonia… Even the cross country buses and trains have it…
Thats so much amzing i really got surprised by getting the info. given here.
I don’t believe it is a google maps mashup as google maps doesn’t support Israel…but point still stands - - its just a mashup - - probably from emap.co.il or other source.
Allen, you’ll be surprised by the amount of free WiFi in NYC…
Totally a new idea. If this implemented in Malaysia, I am sure the map is full with FREE hotspot. Here, all the ppl very geenrous, open up for public. Jsut around my house, already found 5 free wifi.
I am not sure how viable this is.
Free wifi spots are “really” not free. Some businesses like cofee shops put them out to attact customers into their shops.
Using them w/o the consent of the business/owner could land one in Jail
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9722006-7.html
There is free WiFi in almost everywhere - at home networks. Most users leave their WLAN open and unsecure. This breach is seldom exploited, simply because your neighbors probably have their own WLAN, so why should they bother hooking up to yours. However, someone roaming down the avenue with a laptop will gladly hook to your network, and you will probably not mind it, as long as you know your guest’s identity. I compare the WeFi social network to P2P file sharing - you wouldn’t give your files to anyone, but in a protected environment such as P2P software - you feel secure enough to play the give and take game.
I’m a Partner at Lightspeed which is an investor in WeFi. With clients, you’re doing a lot more than just a google maps mashup and a database. The best of these sorts of apps provide standalone value (in WeFi’s case, a better wifi connectivity manager than what ships with XP, admittedly a low bar) that get better with a social overlay.
I posted on WeFi and the trend of social media meeting desktop apps at the Lightspeed blog recently (other examples include Songbird, Joost, Democracy Player, iTunes, Medium etc) - if you’re interested click through on my name in this comment.
Is this directed at folks who are very mobile and are constantly on the move? It would be interesting to see the utility of this for the average hotspot user who spends most of his/her time within a set geographical zone (and probably already knows where the free spots are). “Finding free hotspots” - so I don’t know how big a problem that is
I travel a lot to SF, London, Paris, Barcelona, etc. I live in Amsterdam. I am constantly looking for free WiFi in places where I have meetings. The WeFi map is very handy for me. I am waiting for their Mac client. One of the problems I have is that in a place like London, where there’s a lot of open and closed networks, I don’t want to spend precious time clicking on the various networks to see which one is open. I just want to log on, check my email, browse the Web. WeFi chooses the best open connection and just logs you on quickly. I could have used something like this on my trip to London last month. [Note: I am on WeFi's advisory board]
Is this another app that you need to be online for to use? That is what makes most Wi-Fi finding applications pretty useless. And aren’t there lots of websites that make you search for free hotspots? Such as Plazes?
I currently use a small app called CoconutWifi (Mac only, sorry) that keeps looking for wifi access points. I sit in a bar, open my laptop and wait for a little bullet to go green. Then I connect….
Duncan,
I’m curious why you don’t mention Whisher in your review, as we launched in February at DEMO’07, where we got nice press coverage. We do everything WeFi does, and more - maybe you should have a look.
[Note: I am Whisher's CTO and co-founder]
Pragmatically, how does that work ? Let’s say I’m in a new location; I can use the XP WiFi finder to tell me that there is an open network somewhere. If I can’t find one, and must look up on a map the location of the closest hotspot, don’t I need to be logged on ?
Looks good / shoudl although / know when connected / use the IP for location and auto update a map using a Google API …
- instead of having the user / do it …
wow,an improvement of wifi.very good technology
i would a service like this in asia and india
http://www.freetv4ever.blogspot.com
looks like the same thing as Barcelona based Whisher launched 6 months ago. don’t think they’re doing much to usurp router based model from FON as FON can leverage free routers to build critical mass.
I like their domain name.
A Google Mashup. Anyways, its a good idea. But we need more blanketing WiFi.
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