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New Loopt Features Let Mobile Users Share Social Mapping Experience With All Their Friends

Posted on: Thursday, 15 November 2007, 09:00 CST

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Loopt(TM), a revolutionary social-mapping service, today launched new features that will extend the service and allow Loopt users to share location and status messages with friends on any mobile handset or carrier.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071115/AQTH090)

Loopt now integrates with a user's mobile address book and AIM(R) Buddy List(R), giving users the capability to share their real-time location via text or instant messages. Loopt users can simply send messages to friends and choose to automatically attach their location. For example, a text message or IM sent from Loopt to "join me for coffee" can be accompanied with '@ 5th & Main' and a link to view the location on a map.

"The most common mobile question in the world is 'Where are you?' and we're excited that Loopt can extend the service to a larger mobile universe," said Loopt co-founder and CEO Sam Altman. "Now, Loopt users can share their location with any friend so there'll never be any more missed social connections when everyone is on the go."

Loopt is the only social-mapping service where users can choose to automatically update the location of everyone in a user's private network of friends and display that information directly on a map on their phone. Loopt also connects friends with a journaling feature that allows users to share "geo tagged" photos and comments, as well as send proximity-based messages to friends nearby. The service can even send alerts when friends are nearby or if a friend has left a journal comment, putting an end to missed connections in the real world.

Loopt is the social mapping leader in offering easy-to-use, intuitive and effective privacy controls and safety features. Loopt is 100 percent permission-based -- a closed network where users share location information only with their known friends. Users can turn off automatically-updated location sharing at any time, even on a friend-by-friend basis. Loopt works with leading online mobile, social networking and Internet privacy organizations such as the Family Online Safety Institute, Center for Democracy & Technology, and the Ponemon Institute. Loopt is also TRUSTe certified.

Loopt is currently rolling out these new features to its carrier partners. Current users of the Loopt service will receive an in-application message with upgrade details.

About Loopt

Loopt, based in Silicon-Valley and backed by leading venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates, has created a revolutionary social-mapping service that changes the way friends communicate and connect in the mobile environment. Leveraging the latest location-based technologies, Loopt automatically updates and delivers friend location maps, messages and alerts on mobile handsets and the Web. For more information, please visit http://www.loopt.com/.

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071115/AQTH090PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

Loopt

CONTACT: Erica Jostedt of SutherlandGold Group, ej@sutherlandgold.com,+1-925-890-6889, for Loopt

Web site: http://www.loopt.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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