Social Networking From Your Cell

A small startup VCEL (Virtual Communication Expression & Lifestyle) has unveiled a new social networking service for cell phones. All you need to do to keep in contact with your friends 24/7 is to create a profile with their website, download a Java application for your cell phone (more than 20 models are supported already), and send an invitation to your buddies. Here we go: you can exchange comments, pictures, plan on activities together, etc. You'd have the same control over your profile either from phone or from web browser. They have a nice Java applet for your page, so you can leave your buddies a voice message right from your computer and so on.

Comments

Great

[NitsujTPU]

Facebook.com isn't distracting enough already. Now I can assure that my productively plummets to the Earth's core.

Re:Let me guess...

[romit_icarus]

Abosulutely bang on! Any mobile phone service from the US sounds a bit primitive. Even the list of phone models mentioned is so limited....

Why?!

[pen]

Ok, here are the three main drawbacks I can think of so far:

1. Signing up seems to take place on a web site. This rules out being accessible to people who don't have computers or Internet access -- the only benefit I could imagine for this service.
2. My cell phone has a tiny screen. I won't even bother to elaborate on this.
3. I pay per-kilobyte charges for network traffic. Social networking just isn't important enough to pay for.

Social networking is out

[BadAnalogyGuy]

There are only so many friends that any one person has. Friends of friends make for interesting conversation, but ultimately there is no relationship friends of friends. Extend that even further outwards towards friends of friends of friends and you are now talking about perfect strangers. It's like playing the Kevin Bacon game, but without any of the fun.

What is the benefit of having a huge social network if you're not directly linked to the people who are in the network? It's not like you can call them up and crash at their place. More time should be spent cultivating actual relationships and not trying to make a game out of creating links where none actually exist.

The real next boom in cellphone software services is mobile blogging. Snap a shot while walking and upload and comment on the picture.

Oh wow!

[Opportunist]

I can already see the next gen of this: Cells that let you call your friend and tell them you want to meet!

Gosh. I'm bouncy.

Re:To Join

[TubeSteak]

Answered my own question about the MySpace biz.

http://pub.vcel.net/how.aspx
Apparently you'll be able to check your MySpace profile for updates, amongst other things.

http://www.vcel.net/vcel_contact.php
One of their Board of Advisors is David Rogan - President Cisco Systems Capitol, Vice President of Finance at Cisco Systems?

I don't know what to make of that.

I See....

[ericdano]

So, wait. I see Verizon offering this as part of their music/video package. So I can dance to the latest tunes while shopping for clothes and scheduling something with my friends with this social networking. Wow....

Seriously. This stuff is so stupid. Why not actually use the phone and TALK to your friends?

Better use for phones in social networking

[b0r1s]

A better use is vobbo's video blog + video phone integration, where you can post pictures and video from the phone to the web. Don't try to type with a silly keypad, don't try to view video/picture on limited resolution, use it as an input device and get back to using the web the way you meant to all along.

Get the media online quickly and easily, that's what people really seem to care about, anyway.

My_6x6_Space

[SsShane]

Finally a way to stay in touch with all my felonious friends!