A new service, Sniffu, has developed a new cell service that gives people an electronic map showing the location of their friends, writes The Times of London.
The Social Network Integrated Friend Finder (Sniff) can be accessed by Facebook or cell phone and is already popular in Scandinavia. Sniff is run by Useful Networks, which is owned by Liberty Media.
Sniff says only consumers who give their permission could be electronically tracked by the service and plans to charge users about 75 pence in the UK (about a buck) for each location “sniff”, with the results for mobile customers sent by return text.
It looks like the first Facebook application to apply premium charges to customers’ mobile bills.
In many respects, it’s not unlike what Loopt is doing with its friend-finder features, but the Facebook aspect looks like a new twist.
too 1984 for me
Okay, I’ve lived in Sweden for the past 8 years and I’ve never heard of this! It smacks of YET ANOTHER April fool….
If you are not serious then ok. Enjoy April Fool Day!
this is the first app that I have to say I’m not totally sure on one way or another. a few quick searches finds at least some background info, like this:
http://www.usef...ucts/community/
but there is also at least one broken link on the main site for the product.
the name is ridiculous given the date it’s launching, but the tech behind this isn’t anything that special. Loopt is doing it, for example.
there’s also this facebook app, which has some history in the discussion. it wasn’t just created yesterday.
http://www.face...8;b&ref=pd
if this is a fake, its elaborate as hell, and seems to be more effort than payoff.
Yeah right… I might find something to be actually true in my reader today…
who’d would do PR for a new feature or product to be launched on the 1st of April?
silly name but I can see the mobile version being useful on a night on the town with your mates and you get seperated and they are in a loud bar and not picking up the phone.
I agree with Martin (1st comment) : too Big Brother
these ads are sucking techcrunch
loading time for web pages are very high
please implemet some caching in u r website that will help the performence of techcrunch
i am having 256kbps broadband connection
Everything for Facebook.
http://www.tech-exposed.com
Be afraid, be very afraid. New tracking devices.
I like it! A litle bit Big Brother, but what isnt today?
if its real its stupidly expensive
i dont think id pay a buck just cuz I was curious – if it had some purpose, like “where in the club” is my friend – then maybe?
Hey guys, here’s the link to the app: http://apps.fac...fnordic/?ref=ts
Unlike what they say in the Times article.. The app can only work on two of the 4 major telcos in Sweden: Three & Telenor. And one in Denmark: Three.
And I am not sure how popular the service is. There has been a bunch of similar friendfinder services offered in the past in Sweden including Telia FriendFinder, but none has seen much success. If Sniff NordicFriendFinder actually has a significant amount of users it would surprise me, and I think it would be due to the significant Facebook ad campaign that was accompanied with the launch.
However, I really doubt that any of the users who added the app are actually using it. From FB: 38 daily active users. 1% of total, 3 friends
Wow this is a very elaborated prank!
(just kidding)
Lose the name.
cost-per-sniff is exorbitant, name is grody, but big brother it aint — it’s useful as hell.
‘75 pence is about a buck’.
That’s the best April Fool’s Joke I have heard this year.
http://www.samecell.com is trying the same thing, but the execution is incredibly poor. at least they have a blackberry client and a facebook ‘hook’.
Sorry… but this is pretty useless like 99.5 of the apps.
It’s not a fake or joke. Just check out the website or facebook app. The website, http://www.sniffu.com, actually lists the pricing as 50p not 75p. I like it and think it could be very useful.
Sounds quite an interesting service.