iPling, a social expansion engine that allows you to expand your social experience, has launched its location-based social networking service that’s optimized for the Apple iPhone. This is the world’s first location-based social networking application for the Apple iPhone.
Here’s how iPling works, it’s rather cool technology:
Using the iPhone, you can discover and communicate with people who share similar interests—no matter where they are. Once logged in, you can create profiles based on your interests. Your profiles consist of keywords (or tags) that are relevant to each of your interests. Each profile is assigned a different color. Your professional profile could be red, your search engine marketing profile could be green and your horseback riding profile could be purple. When your profiles are active, you can see other people with whom you share common interests. The color of someone who is close by tells you if your interests match up. If someone else sees you and you have a common interest, they can send you an anonymous text message. According to iPling, all of your personal info is kept confidential, just in case you don’t want to be introduced to that person.
Up until now, social networking has always relied on an invitation type of system: you must add a friend or invite someone to be your friend on a social network. The iPling completely changes that. It gives complete strangers the ability to find others near them that share a common interest. Each person can control their own information and the entire experience. Also, there has never been a way (up until now) for users to connect with other people based on proximity and interests.
Registering and finding people using iPling is completely free. It’s currently in public beta.
iPling is a company based in San Francisco, California and was founded in January of 2007 by a group of Silicon Valley veterans. The founders hail from companies like Anderson, Apple, WorldCom, Symantec and Yahoo!.
Update: Links have been removed from this post. November 15, 2014.