Main | Thursday, March 26, 2009

Q: Location? A: Right Behind You, Dude

The Washington Post writes about the latest iPhone app which uses the device's geolocation function so homos can find other homos that happen to be nearby.
We've seen a handful of dating applications that cater to the straight community, and today brings the launch of Grindr (iTunes Link), one of the first iPhone applications geared towards gay and bisexual men. While privacy is an issue for all location based social networks, it is of the utmost importance on gay networks. Without proper security measures, bigots could easily download such applications and use them to pinpoint targets for hateful slurs and potentially even violence. Grindr deals with these issues by obscuring a user's absolute location by default. Rather than plotting each user on the map. Grindr displays how far away they are (distances can range from a few feet to miles away). The application presents users with a list of nearby strangers, arranged in a grid of photos (you can click on a photo to see their personal profile). From here, users can strike up a real-time chat. If they decide they like their new acquaintance, they can they optionally choose to reveal their exact locatio
WaPo's headline: "Gay Dating Makes Its Way To The iPhone." Dating? Grindr?

Labels: , , ,

comments powered by Disqus

<<Home