Dodgeball – Your mobile social network

Meet, mingle. find. The MMF’s of Dodgeball. (Get your head out of the gutter)

You’re all well aware of the numerous social networking services that exist today. We have Friendster, Orkut, Myspace, Upoc, Hennessy, 151… You get the idea. Now, let’s imagine Mr. Friendster and Ms. Upoc go home together from the bar for a night of [use your imagination].** Worst case scenario happens and Mr. Friendster ends up muttering the dreaded “oops” word that night. Do you know what resulted from that single night of pure bliss? 18 years of support payments for a child named Dodgeball. Wait, I must have my stories twisted.

Let’s start over. Dodgeball’s real parents go by the names Dennis Crowley and Alex Rainert. Based out of New York, this dynamic duo has blended two of the worlds most popular services – internet networking & mobile communications – into a high-fun low cost – as in free – smoothie. I’ll skip the technicalities and jump right into the service itself with a very simple and common scenario:

Nigh out on the town!
You’re out at your favorite watering hole all alone wishing you had some company. You send a text message out to Dodgeball with you current location – Bubba’s Bar – and Dodgeball looks for anyone on your contact list within a 10 block radius. Dodgeball realizes that Peggy Sue checked in at the coffee shop 2 blocks away. You’re both notified of your proximity to one another allowing the two of you to meet. Lonely no more! Brilliant!

Dodgeball has no idea of your actual whereabouts unless you voluntarily send a text message reporting your location. Even then, you’re not actually tagged and tracked like a wild bore. So don’t worry! Dodgeball only knows your location based on the ‘check-in’ messages sent from your handset.

The service is similar to the unsuccessful AT&T mMode friend finder which triangulated a cell phone user based on their proximity to cell towers. Although Dodgeball expands on the mobile friend finder idea, it is in its infancy period operating in 22 major US cities. Try it out. Invite your friends. If your city isn’t listed, tell them you’re lonely out in the sticks here. Dennis has kindly informed me that there are indeed plans for future growth.

Try It

** The Friendster Upoc incident resulting in a child by the name of Dodgeball did not happen. Furthermore, there is no affiliation between the three services.