Surf's Up: I might just be watching you!

It's interesting to see trends emerging and one I've started to notice lately is sites using GPS.

The first sites that used GPS were for geocaching - "an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world". These sites have been around since May 2000. These sites require the user to have a GPS device.

Now with more smartphones and PDA's with GPS available to the user I've been finding new sites that let people know your location, a location of a picture you've taken and even the location of things around you in real time.

Here are some interesting sites I’ve come across and some I have used and rememeber - I might just be watching you!:


http://www.brightkite.com/
"Location-based social networking - Discover who visits your favorite places. Join the community in real time."
About:N/A currently in private beta
Account Type:N/A currently in private beta



http://www.ipoki.com/
"Ipoki lets you get the most of your GPS by connecting you with others to share geolocation information. Anyone can join Ipoki and everyone can share their location with their friends."
About:Ipoki has a mobile client available for certain phones - please check the site for a full list of supported haddsets.
Account Type:Free



http://www.bliin.com/
"bliin YourLIVE! is dedicated to creating a fluid social network for sharing personal experiences - photos, videos, sound & text - in real-time, located on a world map."
About:Blinn has a mobile client available for certain phones - please check the site for a full list of supported haddsets. It also has software for PC and Mac users.
Account Type:Free



http://www.livecontacts.com/
"livecontacts let's you know where your friends are. Stay in touch via your PDA or smartphone with GPS positioning"
About:Livecontacts has a mobile client available for certain phones - please check the site for a full list of supported haddsets.
Account Type:Free



http://fireeagle.yahoo.net/
"We're here to make the whole web respond to your location and help you to discover more about the world around you."
About:N/A currently in private beta
Account Type:N/A currently in private beta



http://www.gypsii.com/
"GyPSii allows users to share their real life experiences in the virtual world using mobile devices and the web."
About:GyPSii has a mobile client available for certain phones - please check the site for a full list of supported haddsets.
Account Type: Free



http://www.panoramio.com/
"Photos of the world. Locate your photos where they were taken"
About: Panoramio allows users to upload photo and map them to a location. Some new camera's have built-in GPS receivers which store the location of the picture automatically using EXIF - so users can just upload the photo and the site does the rest.
Account Type: Free


Please note: although sites are free to use if you use the mobile client you will be charged for data by your phone provider.

I hope you've enjoyed looking through these great sites. Look out for future Surf's Up features where I'll be looking at the internet and what it has to offer. If you want to keep track of sites I find follow me on twitter @kunji.

Kunji