Ipoki Archive

Based in Spain, Ipoki is a social network with a twist. Rather than networking with people in one location, with Ipoki, you can connect with people based on where you are at the present moment. It works worldwide, there are 8,000 registered members and so far from what I can tell most are from Europe and South America. Perhaps this is where the majority of handsets with GPS are located?

The service uses Google Maps heavily along with Google Earth. You can import a file into Google Earth and just watch all of the people who have set their profiles to "public" move around the globe. Great tool for boredom and for spying! In a totally freaky concept, you can embed a live map into your blog so your visitors can watch your every move – damn!

There are scannable QR codes to get Ipoki installed on your handset and to follow others. There are widgets to tie into Netvibes, iGoogle, PageFlakes, etc. You can use the API to extend the functionality of Ipoki. There’s also a tie-into Flickr for geotagging of photos with one click.

To use Ipoki, your phone must have GPS enabled. It would be great if they could get it working similar to the way Google Maps works with the point triangulation. Sadly Sprint has locked the GPS on my mobile so I can’t show you a live demo. I have embedded another Ipoki user below.

This is monetizable locally by taking the matches to a location (pizza, diner, movie, bowling, etc.) — hyper local advertising at its best.