Mobile service, Facebook app locates friends via their mobile devices

DENVER, USA: Useful Networks and Inta SpaceTurk, in partnership with Turkcell, the leading communication and technology company of Turkey, launched sobbe, a cutting-edge friend finding service.

Useful Networks has already launched this service in the US, UK and Sweden under the name sniff, which stands for social network integrated friend finder as the service includes a Facebook application that lets users find their friends from the web.

This hot new service from US based company, Useful Networks and Turkish based company, Inta SpaceTurk, allows you to locate your closest friends and family anytime and anywhere by identifying their location via their mobile phone signal. It then delivers the location via a text message or within Facebook -- even providing a detailed map of the vicinity.

The permission-based application provides complete privacy control for all “sobbes” (or locates) -- meaning only two people who have mutually accepted and established a sobbe relationship can locate one another. Friends have complete control over who sees them and when, thanks to the ability to instantly switch between being visible and invisible.

Unlike other friend finding services, sobbe works on literally any handset on the network, and it finds the location of your friend in real-time, not the last time they updated their status.

Registering for the service is easy and FREE. There are three simple ways to sign up – by texting ‘kayit’ to 7015, by adding the sobbe application through Facebook or by visiting www.sobbe.com.tr. Once registered, users can easily and quickly invite their friends and/or family to join.

The Facebook application allows users to easily invite, connect and locate any of their closest online friends. With Turkey home to one of the largest Facebook populations in the world (over 10.5 million users) its creators believe that sobbe could quickly become the latest addition to our Internet vocabulary.

Useful Networks CEO and sobbe/sniff creator Brian Levin comments: “People are spending increasing amounts of time managing and mapping their friendship groups online, so why not literally map them offline too?

"If you’ve ever found yourself stuck at home because your friends at a local cafe can’t hear your calls above all the noise, or missed out on an impromptu night out because you didn’t realize that friends had been out near you, then sobbe/sniff is for you. sobbe is for people to use within their close friendship and family circles. It’s easy, fun and it works. And because you have absolute control over if, how and when your location information is shared, it is also very safe too.”

Mehmet Emin Halitligil, corporate marketing & sales manager at Inta SpaceTurk, comments, “We are very pleased that we have been able to utilize the assets of our firm commitment to the cutting edge geospatial technologies and leverage our long-term relationship with Turkcell to launch such a compelling mass market service as sobbe.

Mustafa Eren, business development manager for location based services at Turkcell adds: “sobbe is a great example of a mass market mash-up of location, mobile and Facebook applications. The ability to locate friends or other physical locations on demand with any mobile phone also enables brands and advertisers to interact with their customers in new and exciting ways.