End Noise

Small Planet is a software company whose app allows certain Bluetooth-enabled phones to talk to each other and share their owner's profiles with each other. The idea is that if I was walking down Houston, my phone would let me know that a fellow West Wing fan was in the area. Their profile would have their name, pic and a little blurb. While I think this is a cute idea and all, I don't really see it taking off. I am a pretty friendly guy, but the idea of chatting with a random person based on a shared profile element is not appealing to me. I guess, I could ask him 'What's your favorite season?', but I don't really see that happening.

The only way that I see it working is if they join up with someone like Meetup.com. This way if you are at an event (at say a bar or a conference) you can find all of the other people at that meeting. At the few Meetup.com events I have attended, it was annoying (and potentially embarrassing) to figure out who was and was not a part of the actual event versus normal bar patrons. As long as their is a pretext to actually find people, it might work. On the other hand, a sign saying 'Meetup.com Group' would be just as effective.