As apple unveils the iPhone 3G, online content and service providers are jostling each other to advertise their compatibility with the new product. Mobile social networking service
Whrrl has joined the fray,
announcing that it is available as a free download to both iPhone and iPod touch users.
Whrrl is one step removed from classic social networking platforms in that it not only provides its members with a medium through which they can interact, but also offers real-time personalised updates that connect its users' relationships and tastes to their surroundings in order to suggest places, experiences and events they otherwise might not have discovered.
Users can keep track of their friends, where they are and what they are doing in real time, encouraging them to share experiences and thoughts at the same time as they are living them, illustrated by sharing rich media content such as photos. An integrated social calendar makes it easier to accommodate spur of the moment events.
In parallel, the platform?s algorithms automatically compare the user?s location with his or her friends? activity history so that it may suggest relevant items of interest such as restaurants, bars, stores, live music events or movies. Integrated data-filtering allows for the provision of additional information about these venues like the type of cuisine served, hours of operation, presence of outdoor seating or family-friendly status.
Pelago's (the company behind Whrrl) chief executive officer and co-founder Jeff Holden comments, ?Whrrl not only lets you see where your friends are and what they?re doing in real-time, it lights up your map with their activity history and that with deep factual data and a powerful recommendation engine to enable the user to discover cool places and events they otherwise would never have thought to try.?
?The iPhone is the perfect device to realize Whrrl?s full potential with its potent combination of location-based services, 3G connectivity and touch-screen interface?, he enthuses.
The U.S. version comes ready-furnished with a database of millions of businesses and events that is destined to be continually updated and amended by Whrrl users.