Social Networking via phone

Reuters has a story on how GPS phones will create new social networks:

Finding friends and meeting new ones could become even more important uses for global positioning chips than getting from A to B as the technology spreads to cellphones in coming years. Combined with mobile internet access, GPS (global positioning system) is seen in the industry as adding a new dimension to social networking that could also have implications for the media business.

“One of the more compelling things that we might use every day is the integration of that information into knowing where my friends are,”

Nokia predicts that 25 per cent of phones in 2010 will have GPS and an Amsterdam company, is currently building a social networking application for GPS-enabled phones.

The service, branded GyPSii, will allow users to upload pictures, videos and sound clips recorded with their phones that are automatically encoded with the location where the picture was taken or the recording was made.

Users can see where their friends are and see and search each other’s saved places.

I have been predicting this for a year or so. It will be huge as it gets fully developed.