April 2009
IRL Connect, the world's first visual social network, has launched its public beta at TechCrunch UK's Geek 'n Rolla tech startup event in London. The company unveiled new features that integrate mobile digital content and geolocation via Google Maps to bring the mobile and Web together in one place and allow users to share content and conversations across multiple social networks and mobile devices.
In private beta since September 2008, IRL Connect is taking social networking to a new level by giving it the feeling of presence in the real geographical world. It is not simply reading friends' status updates and static profile pages, but visualizing their locations on the map, having conversations in real-time and viewing photos, videos and live streaming broadcasts as they are created, where they are created. IRL Connect has already grown to 1700 users and 85,000 geo contacts on the map from 53 countries worldwide.
With the integration of contacts from mobile devices and multiple social media services, such as Twitter and Facebook, IRL Connect is the first visual platform to create a converged social network environment bringing users, content and conversations to one platform based on geolocation.
"For some time, Web social networks and mobile social networks have struggled to unlock the value of location. Although a lot of progress has been made, the big revolution in social networking has not happened," said IRL Connect CEO Frank Schuil.
"IRL Connect has identified this problem in the market and has now taken the step to bring about convergence of the Web and mobile in social networking."
"As a visual social network, IRL Connect uses the maps and geolocation of content to help users easily see where their connections are, as well as what they are doing and saying. By showing users this is where you are, right here, right now on the planet, we can create true presence that you can't find on any other social network," Schuil added.
With the public beta launch, IRL Connect has implemented new map layers that let users:
EXPERIENCE events and locations live and in real-time with streaming video from the mobile via Bambuser.
SHARE digital content, such as photos and videos, by posting from their mobile phone directly to IRL Connect via Mobypicture.
EXPAND the feeling of presence through geolocation with Google Street View and geotagging of all content with YouTube, including news alerts from media such as CNN and Reuters.
SHOW their precise location through Wi-Fi positioning with Loki.
CONNECT to friends on multiple social networks by integrating their Facebook and Twitter accounts with IRL Connect.
CONVERSE with friends by mousing over talk bubbles that pop up on the map.
IRL Connect began with a centralized platform for location-based services on the Web, which has a base of 506 million social network users, and now serves as a bridge to mobile to give users a greater attachment to the real geographical world.
IRL Connect's new Application Programming Interface (API) allows access to the social ecosystem of the Web so that mobile social networking sites, content creators and other external parties can add content to the map by pushing photos, videos, live broadcasts and status updates from the mobile to IRL Connect. And unlike other video broadcasting services, IRL Connect allows geolocation data to provide context to the video through location.
In Real Life (IRL), www.irlcorporate.com, is the company behind the first visual social network that adds presence to social networks and social media.
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