We’ve all been there. You met someone at a conference who seems interesting, so you get out the business cards. Fast, not awkward, and socially OK. An alternative is you stand there and fire them an email there and then (common practise in the US). Other use LinkedIn apps (I don’t). If you are really ambitious you get out dedicated app built around location and try that. Usually they’ll need the same app, which massively reduces your chances of actually connecting to a small percentage.
A new startup thinks it can make all this easier.
Spotlinks is a smartphone app for iOS or Android which gathers together on its app any links that a user would like to exchange with other Spotlinks users. You open it up and ‘see’ another Spotlinks user within 100 metres, all the way up to 100km (assuming your eyesight is good…).
You can share any link you like (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, a website URL, email etc.) based on your location.
Log-in is via Facebook. You add links to your profile. When a user spots a profile which interests them they request to see the person’s links. The second party gets a push notification informing them that they have been ‘spotted’. If that person agrees, you can see those links and also chat within the app.
Unfortunately we can add many gravestone to mobile social networking: Lime Juice, Rummble, ZYB, Mocospace, Aka-Aki, Nokia Sensor, Dodgeball, Mobiluck, MeetMoi and Imity, just to name a few.
The problem was none had critical mass.
Nokia’s Sensor app, on Symbian, was way ahead of its time, but only worked on Nokias and via Bluetooth to “see” who was around you and look at the profiles they’d built.
But the really successful apps in this area are used for flirting and sex (Tinder, Grindr etc).
Spotlinks is cute and simple, though it needs users. Try it out and see what you think.
