Cool Hunting

As covered here earlier, Dodgeball is a mobile app that helps you navigate your social scene (assuming you live in NYC). Today they launched a new service, Dodgeball Social, which allows you to find out which of your friends are within 10 blocks of you. This feature is super simple and makes a lot of sense to me.

I still believe that Dodgeball's time has yet to come. It won't be until they can take advantage of true cellular positioning and real (not email based) SMS delivery, that the service will take off. In the mean time, they're certainly getting all the right features together.

From the Dodgeball Social FAQ:

Q: What is it?
A: dodgeball.social is a new social networking site built specifically for mobile phones.

Q: What does it do?
A: The idea is simple: tell us where you are, and we'll tell you who is within 10 blocks of you.

Q: Give me an example.
A: Let's say you're having drinks at Luna Lounge. Send us a text message telling us where you are and we'll send you back a message letting you know where your friends are and which of your friends-of-friends are within 10 blocks. If you have a camera phone, we'll even send you their picture.

Q: How do I use it?
A: Whenever you're out, use your mobile phone to send a text message to "nyc@dodgeball.com" with a "@" and then the name of the bar or restaurant you're at. e.g. @Luna Lounge, @Bowery Bar. When we get your text message, we'll check to see if there's anyone you know nearby.

Q: So, how do you know who my friends are?
A: You need to tell us who your friends are, just like you did with Friendster.

Q: So how is this different than Friendster?
A: dodgeball.social is designed to help you meet up with friends and friends-of-friends while you're out, not while you're sitting in front of your computer. Try it out, next time you meet friends for drinks, tell us where you are and we'll tell you who's nearby.