Meetro
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Click for detail screenshot
Meetro location-based social network instant messenger
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| Developer(s) | Meetro, Inc |
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| Stable release |
1.0 / May 1, 2007
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| Operating system | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X |
| Type | Social messenger, Instant Messaging, Social Networking |
| License | proprietary |
| Website | www |
Meetro was a multi-network social messenger with location-based services (LBS). It was compatible with AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, GTalk, , and ICQ. Meetro's features made it useful for meeting people with similar interests in a given area, as well as bundling multiple messaging protocols into one program. Meetro was located in San Francisco, California.
Meetro is a software that runs on Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.
Meetro launched on June 1, 2005. On August 8, 2005, InternetNews reported a rumor that Meetro was in talks to be bought out by search giant Google. On August 14, 2005 SlashDot picked up the story and rumors spread over the internet very quickly.Paul Bragiel, CEO of Meetro, did not initially deny or confirm the rumor, which has been described as a publicity stunt to attract attention, however the rumor was not created by any Meetro Inc. employees but rather a Meetro follower and fan, whom the original article publishing the story called "a source close to the transaction". The real publicity stunt created by Meetro was the purported purchase of Friendster in exchange for a Honda Civic of value $17,000.00 CDN and a hand job...
Meetro differed from the other popular messengers in that users could input location specifications to see other online users in surrounding areas. Its location finder was strongest in the Americas and Europe but worked the world over. Users unable to obtain a location could input latitude and longitude details to see how far away other online users are at a particular moment.
Meetro worked by actively scanning for the MAC addresses of wireless access points around a user's location. Then Meetro contacted the main database server and compared the MAC address to a list of known access points. Subsequently it did some mathematical calculations to determine the latitude and longitude of a location. Once Meetro had calculated the general area (usually a quarter mile) of a user's physical location, it then compared it to others users and displayed who's online within a quarter mile, half mile, mile, etc... A user's exact location was never displayed to other people on the network for privacy and security reasons. Meetro would only present that a user is within a range of 1/4 of a mile. Users could choose to make information of their location public, such as "I'm at the cafe on 2nd and Broadway."
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Wikipedia