There was some other Loopt news last week that we didn’t fill you in on, but if you’re a fan you definitely need to know. First of all, Loopt has joined Facebook Connect allowing users of the mobile social network to bring their Facebook friends to their Loopt network. Not only will you be alerted when your Facebook friends are near, but you’ll also be able to share and find recommendations for nearby businesses, restaurants and other related points of interests. You’ll also be able to feed your location to your Facebook profile. It’s all permission-based of course, so how tightly you restrict your privacy is completely up to you. This is an excellent strategy on the part of Loopt because not only does it exponentially increase its own user base indirectly, but it aligns the service with one of the most popular social networks on the traditional web. The Facebook Connect integration will initially be available as an iPhone app when it debuts later this summer, followed by Blackberry support on the Verizon, Sprint Nextel, and Boost Mobile networks.
If you’re a Facebook junkie, chances are you’ve also tried microblogging service Twitter. You can already “tweet” as they call it, using Loopt on your mobile phone, but now each time you comment using Loopt on Twitter it will be followed by a link to a Google Maps-supplied map pinpointing your location. While this is definitely a useful new feature, more than anything it shows how user-focused Loopt’s developers are. How did the company know this was a wanted feature? They noticed Loopt users would often talk about it when messaging each other using Twitter.
Collectively, this integration of web-based social networks and Loopt will be called Loopt Link and we know for sure it will also include RSS subscriptions in the near future. What other web-based social networks would you like to see included?
