Tag: Local Networking »

Remember that? Walking into a party or business meeting and not knowing ANYONE? Having to put out our hand, offer the dreaded eye contact, and (gasp) learn other people's names? Sounds barbaric, to be honest.

But what about all that six degrees of separation stuff? It's fairly probably that we all have some connections within any sufficiently large number of gathered people, especially in our hometowns, right?

Sonar - Mobile Profile for Local Social Networking promises to bring the power of online social networking to the local space, thereby allowing us all to bury further into our handsets and avoid unkown humans at all costs.

The developer claims to have included Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare into their new app release, allowing it to use publicly available profile information to help us find the connections we might share with folks nearby us. So, if users want to figure out what that girl across the bar is thinking about, or what she does for work, they can use Sonar to look through the public information she's already shared online. it's the prefect innocuous stalking tool! What about letting the room know how big a Kanye fan they are? Or that they need an iPhone developer for a huge new funded project? You can do all that and more with Sonar, according to the developers.

Taking things one step further, the devs happily point out that

Sonar is perfect for:
- Networkers
- Entrepreneurs
- Freelancers
- Event Organizers
- Early Adopters
- Puppies
- Tech and Social Media Enthusiasts
- Anyone that loves “small world” moments

Puppies?! Who doesn't love puppies? All kidding aside, this seems like a fairly interesting way to connect with folks you happen to be standing near, without having to go through the typical pleasantries associated with real life networking, or at least enrich the experience; being able to start a conversation on a subject your target individual is already interested in is a great way to build that next power team relationship, right?

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Ever wonder how to break the ice with people nearby? Why not use an app like Yakaround?

Yakaround is a chat room app with one crucial difference to many others - it enables people to chat to others nearby to them. Proximity plays a big part in Yakaround enabling people to get to know each other through the app rather than having to approach random strangers. It might sound a little unusual. However in a world where people are increasingly compartmentalized and find it difficult to get to know new people, Yakaround could be a great way of learning something about others in a non threatening environment.

Users can also use Yakaround to learn what's going on around them potentially making it a great app to find out about events going on in the local area.

Separate chatrooms have been set up to cover people wanting to talk about places, events or subjects meaning users should be guaranteed to find someone to chat to especially in areas with high concentrations of people.

Currently Yakaround is only available in the US with plans to spread to other English-speaking countries soon.

It's a free download for all iOS devices.