• The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, January 16, 2007 10:45 AM

The idea of social networking on cell phones has always sounded obscure, but cell-phone companies are starting to offer services using Global Positioning System receivers, turning social networking on cell phones into something practical.

Loopt is one such company, offering a buddy-tracking tool through the wireless operator Boost Mobile, which is owned by Sprint-Nextel Corp. Its service uses GPS to help users find their friends' mobile phones anywhere in the U.S., allowing them to zoom into a city map or zoom out to find out where they are.

Loopt already has 100,000 users since launching last fall. Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook also allow users of certain mobile services to check and update their profiles via cellphones. But apart from that capability, there's little to differentiate the mobile and Web service--except that the former is a more limited offering.

Social networking on mobile phones is supposed to be a value-added service that makes it worthwhile for consumers to pay a premium for certain mobile operators, but these services are badly in need of a differentiator, like GPS tracking.

Indeed, a federal mandate is making GPS-like services a requirement for cell phones, but how much are consumers willing to pay for them?

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »