Meetro Blends Proximity Awareness with IM

Posted by Jeff Jeff is offline

on 08-08-2005, 01:58 AM

Does the world need another instant messenger? The guys at Meetro say "yes" but with a twist. Their Meetro messenger works much like you'd expect any instant messenger to work, but with vicinity awareness. Sign-on to Meetro via a wireless access point, say -- at the local Starbucks -- and you'll see other Meetro users within the same area.

Meetro categorizes people by their vicinity to you -- within a mile, within five miles, and so on. When you chat with someone, you'll see just how near or far away they are.

Currently, Meetro supports Windows PCs, but according to CEO Paul Bragiel, versions for mobile devices are in the works. Though still in beta, I've found Meetro to be stable. I'm running version 0.57, which adds the ability to identify my location manually when I'm not using a WiFi hotspot.

Meetro uses it's own IM network, but also supports connections to AIM and ICQ users. Support for Yahoo connections is due very soon.

The Meetro team is based in Chicago, and not surprisingly, that's where their largest percentage of users are located. Even so, it's an intriguing concept, and I think Meetro is worth keeping an eye on.

Could Meetro become the digital equivalent of a quiet party? Check out Meetro and share your comments.

Last edited by Jeff : 08-08-2005 at 02:15 AM.

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Thorus says
08-10-2005, 12:23 AM

I just discovered meetro today - and I am not really understand the mentioned comparison of meetro and this "Quiet Party". That way, you could compare it to a smoke-free bar as well, or to a non-alcoholic bar, or vegetarian food restaurant or whatever .. or havent I gotten enough data from the "Quiet Party" yet to understand its concept? Its a theme party, right ?

I dont think meetro is about that, far more than that ( it also includes themed partys, i admit ;D ). From my guess, meetro also serves as a way to spontaenously talk to people in local physical range : which means people sharing the same athmosphere, same day or night zone, same weather, temperature, even same local tv or radio stations show, which might affect the moods of those people the same way - NOW ( imagine, as a bad example maybe, riots around the block, in your street ..

just one thing that came to my mind actually, besides all the things meetro is already announcing to serve for .. I think its a really powerful program.

Something I also already thought about : I
always dreamed of getting in touch with some other neighbors, awake at night, sitting in their rooms, all alone, to be seen from the street or your window, if their rooms are lightened, maybe you can even recognize they are sitting in front of a computer, not in front of a tv and passive - no one to talk to besides online friends youve never met maybe, too far away for a chance to ever meet them in flesh in real life .. but your local connections ae all asleep, so whom else to talk to ?

on the net, theres always someone awake .. theres daytime somewhere on the globe any minute of 24/7

but how cool to now say hello to the neighbors still up at 3 am, not thinking of sleep, but to stay awake and talk to someone about their current interests, or anything ..
with meetro and announcing it to your friends, or even in your local area, it could become easy using meetro to meet in the only bar still open at that time ( or much better, talk to one of the members owning an already closed bar and OPEN it again on local requests if enough people have announced to come there in the next 5 mins, if it would just open NOW ;D )

ok .. just a few thoughts ;D

and that maybe-party would be quiet, or loud - its your choice ;D

best regards,

thorus