Highlight. Honestly, I don't want anyone else to tell me about it. I know,it's interesting and very, very scary.
If you haven't heard the controversy, click the Forbe's video interview above with Highlight founder (is a user a highlighter? just sayin') Paul Davison, 32, Californian.
Highlight is an iphone App (no android version yet) which logs in via Facebook and was the most talked about at the SXSW Conference in Texas (South X South West. SXSW geddit?).
Talked about in a "Oh, I'm not sure" kinda way but definitely talked about.
What happens is that you download the app to your phone and it takes all your Facebook information. Next time you're within a 100 yards of someone else with the App (basically a football field away), it tells you about them, and them about you.
What they like, who you have in common connections, their profile etc.
Walking down the street and just forgot her name? Not any more.
Have a secretive discrete dinner date? Not any more either.
But here's the OMG! moment. It seems (if you and I are both on Highlight) that you can see my friends and I can see yours.
However what that means is that you might be notified that my pal Tom, who is also on highlight, is walking across the street from you right now and you think, "who the hell is Tom?".
Click and discover is that he's one of my friends and that's what we have in common. You can message him. "Hey Tom, I'm one of Stuart's friends waving at you". He will be pleased. Expect a visual answer.
But one sec, I don't want people whom I don't know, knowing about me in public because I happen to be someone's Facebook friend. David McWilliams has 176,000 of them. He won't be able to go out anymore. "Hey Dave, I'm a friend of one of your 176,000 friends!"
Pity Lady Gaga going incognito to the store in baseball cap and shades. Nope, not anymore, she has 20 million of them.
So now I'm unfriending my Facebook friends who are on Highlight. All 3 of them.
So it's this balance between being useful and scary. Do you want that person coming towards you to know all about you? well, do you?
This is not, strictly speaking, a location based App but it does work off GPS, something I am close to and understand, having tried to develop gps/gprs trackers some time ago.
What I do understand are two clear things that Highlight won't have sorted, when using GPS;
1. GPS (and so Highlight) runs down battery life when enabled. BIG time.
2. It's not good at locating indoors, at all. So when you hear the highlight users stories about tracking a pal in a porn shop, don't be so sure. Hard thing to do with GPS.
And I don't think Highlight has got around these issues notably the battery life drain which will really upset downloaders in time.
The other issue that arises, is the same one that always does, privacy.
But that easily dealt with, they say:
You download Highlight, you're in. You don't, you're not so if it bothers you, don't do it, they say. If you decide to download to be 'cutting edge', you can switch it on and switch it off, they say too. Yeah, right.
But not if I'm just someone's Facebook friend and now you know about me too. That's a big privacy issue. Big trust issue.
However, one commentator has said that the App is just "too early" and it's something "we'll all have sooner or later". And he could be right. But I've read that many reviews, almost all of them irate right now. Maybe they're just "too early". And I'm sorry, I'm with them. I think Paul thinks Paul is a bit too early too. Add to that, I hate the logo.
Location based applications haven't really had traction yet ('Foursquare' to a point) and there's an evens bet that they will. Highlight is first in if that's the case and readily positioned to become dominant.
And location based applications are great for.....Ads.
Ads as you shop, Ads as you walk past the store, Ads as you visit the bar....
So what happens when Highlight starts suggesting where I should go for coffee because I've been there 3 times already?
Hmmmmm.....Now there's a thought.
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