Remember making new friends without the help of the Internet? Thanks to a new service called rmbrMe, you can convert those messy real life acquaintances into easily manageable social networking formats! rmbrMe lets you send a code via text message that will link people you just met to your profiles on Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, or whatever other networks you choose. There is a bit of a missing link between having someone's phone number and having their URLs. Not everyone has an iPhone, so it's not always easy to send a hyperlink that won't have to be retyped into a browser later. RmbrMe is a clever concept, but it makes us wish for something even easier. Instead of going to a browser and typing in a five-digit code to get to a profile that aggregates all of your other profiles, it would be nice to see a service that generated friend requests straight from the text message.
For now, rmbrMe is a fairly elegant solution to the problem of helping people, well, remember you. The catch, and the reason we probably won't become frequent users of the service, is that it charges 49 cents a message, on top of whatever your carrier charges. Asking for an e-mail address might be a little bit dorkier, but it's also cheaper.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-08-2008 @ 12:25PM
Michael Beck said...
Reminds me of another paid service that recently cropped up, that supposedly made it easier to find out where your friends were at... for a fee.
When services like these pop up, I always wonder... are these companies solving a problem that actually exists? Or trying to have a problem solved before its even created?
Well if anyone has a ton of VC to throw out there, I have an idea for a business for people who are too shy to text someone they just met. You text the service and it will contact your intended recipient with a note that says, "Do you like John Smith? Please reply with yes or no." If the person replies with a "yes", you will be informed and can initiate normal texting. If the reply is negative, the service will inform you as gently as possible.
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5-09-2008 @ 9:31AM
Gabe said...
I think that's an interesting twist on the idea, personally. :)
rmbrME isn't a location-based friend finder, FWIW. It's really about exchanging your social network contact information with someone you meet in real time. More like a business card, only more effective, green, fast and fun.
Gabe Zichermann
CEO, rmbrME