Google's Dodgeball.com Service: Mobile Phone Dating

What would your response be if I asked you for the following:

Name
Username
Password
Email Address
Phone Number
Your Friend's Email Addresses
Who you have a crush on
Regular updates on where you go to eat & drink

Am I the least discrete stalker on Earth? I think that depends on what I plan on doing with your data. One company you may have heard of ?��Ǩ�� Google ?��Ǩ�� is asking users for this information under the brand Dodgeball.com. What are they doing with that information?

Dodgeball.com - as they describe it ?��Ǩ�� is "mobile social software." The site is designed to build social networks based on popular bar and restaurant locations. The site allows you and your network of Dodgeball friends to update each other on what bars and restaurants you're at using short text messages from your cell phone. Started in New York City, the service it is currently rolled out in twenty two cities in the United States. The company was acquired by Google in May 2005.

Here is how it works:

A person registers with Dodgeball.com, then sends a text message from their cell phone to verify their phone number. Once that's done, Dodgeball users simply send a quick text message to Dodgeball from restaurants and bars they visit. Here is a photo of my most recent SMS message to twincites@dodgeball.com from my Treo 600 phone:

SMS Dodgeball from a Treo 600

Notice the most recent SMS message is for the Chatterbox Pub. That message was a "Check-In" and earned me a spot on the Twincities.Dodgeball.com homepage:

Dodgeball Recent Check-Ins

But Dodgeball did more than simply display my mug on their homepage. They also broadcast a text message to all of my friends in my Dodgeball network, telling them where I was.

Had any of my friends been within 10 blocks of my location, I would have received a text back from Dodgeball with their locations. It also has a dating feature that tells your "crushes" when you're nearby.

What makes this useful?

It's a fun way to give techie shout outs to friends.

It's faster and easier than calling your friends to organize a night out.

It's a great way to discover new restaurants and bars. For example, I've never met Aaron L., pictured to my left on the check-in image. While using dodgeball.com, I've figured out that we have similar tastes in restaurants and bars, which enticed me to try the Chatterbox Pub last night. I'll definitely be going back, and I may even meet Aaron there some day.

What does Dodgeball gain?

While the business model is not clear today, but they?��Ǩ�Ѣre clearly building a network that?��Ǩ�Ѣs attractive to advertisers. The opportunities for local and personalized advertising are tremendous given the detail of data provides by participants in the Dodgeball network.

While text messages are limited to 160 characters, they should have space to add, ?��Ǩ?�Try Bombay Sapphire?��Ǩ�� to texts sent to people on their way to restaurants or bars. In fact, they could customize the ads based on the type of establishments people are visiting. A gin & tonic may not be the most appealing ad may be a better ad for chicken wing lovers.

Or target the ads to specific locations: How about a Leinenkeugel?��Ǩ�Ѣs Honeyweiss ad targeting Maxwell?��Ǩ�Ѣs customers with an offer for a free appetizer if they tell their waitress a code word? (example: Join your friend Ed at Maxwell's [12th & Washington] and receive a FREE APPETIZER for saying ?��Ǩ?�Dominick the Donkey" to the server.)

Online to Offline Conversions: What will Google do with this data? What happens when people use the same email address for Dodgeball and personalized search on Google. Could Google track online ad performance based on offline restaurant and bar visits by Dodgeball members?

If the idea of publishing your dining patterns on a public web site freaks you out, this probably isn't the site for you. But, if you are a social buterfly who likes hooking up with friends all over town at fun spots, Dodgeball may be worth trying.

Not sure. There is a way turn off sending messages to friends, but I'm not using that. Make sure your number is correct under Prefs. Or ask dodgeball.

First, a correction: when you use Dodgeball, all your friends locally get notified of your location. The 10 blocks comes into play for friends-of-friends (i.e. Matt S. is at Bryant-Lake Bowl. You know him through Aaron L.). The only times your friends do not get notified is if you're in a different metropolitan area (i.e. my Chicago and Houston friends don't get notified), or if you turn off notifications for a friend (or they turn you off).

I don't fully agree with the "dating" lean in the article. Personally, I treat Dodgeball more of a friendster-like service than a dating service. For me, it's more about notifying my friends in one easy sweep where I'm at, as well as pinging friends of friends if I happen to be nearby. With the lack of people (notably women!) using Dodgeball in the Twin Cities, it's not very suitable at this point to be considered a dating tool. I'm not sure if it'd be considered one in New York either where the large majority of Dodgeball traffic resides.

I played with the "crush" or "dating" feature once and I think it blows. Interesting concept, but not my kind of thing I guess.

Talking about advertisement opportunities, in New York they have a "user" called Flavorpill which more or less sends you text messages pointing to events at Dodgeball venues that may match your interests.

Finally, it's cool to see more and more people starting to use Dodgeball in the Twin Cities. Right now I sadly know probably 90% of the traffic. Even though I've met Dodgeball user David de Young once, I'm more or less friends with the top 9 users except for you, Ed. :-) Dodgeball will really start working once more people I don't know start using it! Hopefully your readers will try it out.

Thanks for the correction, and good point about the viability of the service for dating purposes. Friendster probably is a better analogy for how I use it too. Dodgeball really is a platform, and it's up to users to decide how they'd like to use it.

It looks like Flavorpill has reaches Chicago, but not the Twin Cities yet:
http://flavorpill.net/

I'll try to help spread the dodgeball word so we can knock some of your friends off the homepage.

Interesting comment, Erik. Is your concern giving your data away in general, or to Google/Dodgeball specifically. I ask because you apparently gave you name, email, and URL in order to write your post. Of course, it could be fake information, but it does come across as fairly ironic.

I hope no 'myspace' tendencies plague this one. it sure sounds convenient, although it'll be quite a while before it comes to India!

people who'l be unwilling to give out their details will be the paranoid or very old. youngsters and youths (unaware) do give out their details for these social services (eg: myspace), so this won't be any different.

i think using your phone to create or enhance real world interactions is a killer application, but no one has cracked the nut yet

I agree with John's comments. The ability to "create or enhance real world interactions" using your mobile phone adds real value.

This discussion reminds me of a mobile dating service called Ice Brkr that was recently launched in London, UK. If you see someone cool in a bar it lets you ask permission for a chat.

It's difficult to know which applications will succeed but I can only assume we'll see more and more applications like these.

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