Meetro

Last updated
Meetro
Developer(s) Meetro, Inc
Stable release
1.0 / May 1, 2007 [1]
Operating system Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
Type Social messenger, Instant Messaging, Social Networking
License proprietary
Website www.meetro.com

Meetro was a multi-network social messenger with location-based services (LBS). It was compatible with AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, GTalk, XMPP, 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.

Contents

Meetro is a software that runs on Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.

Launch and early history

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. [2] On August 14, 2005 SlashDot picked up the story and rumors spread over the internet very quickly. [3] 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". [4]

How it works

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."

Shortly before closing, Meetro added support for business address look-ups in the United States as an alternative method for users to report their location.

Features

Meetro allowed users to create custom profile pages which could be searched and browsed by other users nearby. Meetro's profiles supported feeds for videos, photos, and blogs in addition to the typical social networking profile questions. Users had the option of embedding dynamic feeds from their YouTube videos, Flickr photos, and their personal blogs directly into their profiles. Meetro was one of the few services offering 'profile aggregation' - crawling the web to aggregate a user's digital persona.

Meetro was different than other social networks and messengers in the fact that as soon as you signup, you're able to talk with other users who are nearby instantly, even if they're not approved 'friends'. This is to encourage communication between nearby people.

Towards then end of 2006, Meetro introduced features to display places and services that were nearby (in addition to people). Meetro will display nearby restaurants, cafes, and bars on a map. Meetro had planned to also display the local weather and nearby geotagged photos.

Meetro had introduced a number of location based web widgets, including a StatusBadge that would display a user's last known real-world location on their blog, email, or personal webpage.

Meetro allowed users to create real-time personalized groups within the client. These groups could be configured to show a specific subset of Meetro users grouped by any combination of: Status (away/available), Gender (male, female, unspecified), Minimum Distance, Maximum Distance, Keywords, Relation (friend, friend of a friend, unrelated, MeetroHQ). For example, you could create a group that includes all users that are between 3 and 4 miles away and are currently online. Meetro was one of the only messengers to have a rule-based grouping system, as opposed to other messengers which do not use any personal descriptors or location to sort and filter users.

Company background

Meetro originally started in Chicago, IL with a small team working and living out of the same house. The team moved to Palo Alto, CA in late 2005 and continued the same live/work situation. Meetro grew and enjoyed press coverage for its atypical live/work ethic, including a front page story in the San Francisco Chronicle. [5] At the time of closing, Meetro headquartered in San Francisco's SoMa district.

Meetro closed in 2007. The development team terminated the project in order to focus their efforts on their Lefora project. [6] [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AIM (software)</span> Instant messaging service

AIM was an instant messaging and presence computer program created by AOL, which used the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time.

ICQ New is a cross-platform instant messaging (IM) and VoIP client. The name ICQ derives from the English phrase "I Seek You". Originally developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis in 1996, the client was bought by AOL in 1998, and then by Mail.Ru Group in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Instant messaging</span> Form of communication over the Internet

Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and triggers a transmission to the recipient(s), who are all connected on a common network. It differs from email in that conversations over instant messaging happen in real-time. Most modern IM applications use push technology and also add other features such as emojis, file transfer, chatbots, voice over IP, or video chat capabilities.

Trillian is a proprietary multiprotocol instant messaging application created by Cerulean Studios. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS, and the Web. It can connect to multiple IM services, such as AIM, Bonjour, Facebook Messenger, Google Talk (Hangouts), IRC, XMPP (Jabber), VZ, and Yahoo! Messenger networks; as well as social networking sites, such as Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, and Twitter; and email services, such as POP3 and IMAP.

iChat Built-in instant messaging software application for Mac OS X

iChat is a discontinued instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. for use on its Mac OS X operating system. It supported instant text messaging over XMPP/Jingle or OSCAR (AIM) protocol, audio and video calling, and screen-sharing capabilities. It also allowed for local network discussion with users discovered through Bonjour protocols.

Macworld/iWorld was an information technology trade show with conference tracks dedicated to Apple's Mac platform. It was held annually in the United States during January. Originally Macworld Expo and then Macworld Conference & Exposition, the gathering dates back to 1985. The conference was organized by International Data Group (IDG), co-publisher of Macworld magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friendster</span> Social gaming site

Friendster was a social network game based in Mountain View, California, founded by Jonathan Abrams and launched in March 2003. Later, the company became a social gaming site based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Before Friendster was redesigned, the service allowed users to contact other members, maintain those contacts, and share online content and media with those contacts. The website was also used for dating and discovering new events, bands and hobbies. Users could share videos, photos, messages, and comments with other members via profiles and networks. It is considered one of the original social networks.

The Apple community is a group of people interested in Apple Inc. and its products, who report information in various media. Generally this has evolved into a proliferation of websites, but latterly has also expanded into podcasts, either speculating on rumors about future product releases, simply report Apple-related news stories, or have discussions about Apple's products and how to use them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meebo</span> Instant messaging client

Meebo was an instant messaging and social networking service provider. It was founded in September 2005 by Sandy Jen, Seth Sternberg, and Elaine Wherry, and was based in Mountain View, California. Initially the company offered a web-based instant messenger service, extending its offer in more general online chat and even social networking directions. In June 2012, Google acquired Meebo to merge the company's staff with the Google+ developers team.

iWeb HTML editor

iWeb was a template-based WYSIWYG website creation tool developed by Apple Inc. The first version of iWeb was announced at the Macworld Conference & Expo on January 10, 2006 as part of the iLife ’06 suite of digital lifestyle applications. iWeb '11 was released on October 20, 2010 as part of the iLife ’11 suite, though it was not updated from the previous release.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tagged (website)</span> Social discovery website

Tagged is a social discovery website based in San Francisco, California, founded in 2004. It allows members to browse the profiles of any other members, and share tags and virtual gifts. Tagged claims it has 300 million members as of 2014. As of September 2011, Quantcast estimates Tagged monthly unique users at 5.9 million in the United States, and 18.6 million globally. Michael Arrington wrote in April 2011 that Tagged is most notable for the ability to grow profitably during the era of Facebook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social media use in the Philippines</span>

Social networking is one of the most active web-based activities in the Philippines, with Filipinos being declared as the most active users on a number of web-based social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. The use of social networking website has become so extensive in the Philippines that the country has been tagged as "The Social Media Capital of the World," and has also become part of Filipino Internet culture. Subsequently, social media is also used in the Philippines as a form of election campaign material, as well as tools to aid criminal investigation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Live Messenger</span> Deprecated instant messaging client

MSN Messenger, later rebranded as Windows Live Messenger, was a cross-platform instant-messaging client developed by Microsoft. It connected to the Microsoft Messenger service and, in later versions, was compatible with Yahoo! Messenger and Facebook Messenger. Versions were developed for Windows, Xbox 360, Mac OS X, BlackBerry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x, MSN TV, Zune HD, Windows Phone, Windows Mobile and Windows CE.

Aardvark was a social search service that connected users live with friends or friends-of-friends who were able to answer their questions, also known as a knowledge market. Users submitted questions via the Aardvark website, email or instant messenger and Aardvark identified and facilitated a live chat or email conversation with one or more topic experts in the 'askers' extended social network. Aardvark was used for asking subjective questions for which human judgment or recommendation was desired. It was also used extensively for technical support questions. Users could also review question and answer history and other settings on the Aardvark website. Google acquired Aardvark for $50 million on February 11, 2010. In September 2011, Google announced it would discontinue a number of its products, including Aardvark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google+</span> Social network owned and operated by Google

Google+ was a social network owned and operated by Google. The network was launched on June 28, 2011, in an attempt to challenge other social networks, linking other Google products like Google Drive, Blogger and YouTube. The service, Google's fourth foray into social networking, experienced strong growth in its initial years, although usage statistics varied, depending on how the service was defined. Three Google executives oversaw the service, which underwent substantial changes that led to a redesign in November 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Messages (Apple)</span> Instant messaging software applications

Messages is an instant messaging software application developed by Apple Inc. for its macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS operating systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple Maps</span> Map application operated by Apple Inc.

Apple Maps is a web mapping service developed by Apple Inc. The default map system of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS, it provides directions and estimated times of arrival for driving, walking, cycling, and public transportation navigation. A "Flyover" mode shows certain densely populated urban centers and other places of interest in a 3D landscape composed of models of buildings and structures.

Comparison of user features of messaging platforms refers to a comparison of all the various user features of various electronic instant messaging platforms. This includes a wide variety of resources; it includes standalone apps, platforms within websites, computer software, and various internal functions available on specific devices, such as iMessage for iPhones.

In social media, a story is a function in which the user tells a narrative or provides status messages and information in the form of short, time-limited clips from several automatically running sequences. A story is usually displayed on a user's profile page and thus represents an audiovisual extension to the text-based status function.

macOS Ventura 19th major version of the macOS operating system

macOS Ventura is the nineteenth and current major release of macOS, Apple's desktop operating system for Mac computers. The successor to macOS Monterey, it was announced at WWDC 2022 on June 6, 2022, and launched on October 24, 2022. It is named after the city of Ventura and is the tenth macOS release to bear a name from the company's home state of California. The macOS 13 Ventura logo and default wallpaper resemble an abstract California poppy.

References

  1. "Meetro turns 1.0". 2007-05-01. Archived from the original on 2007-08-13. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
  2. Google to Buy Meetroduction
  3. Slashdot reports that Meetro may be bought
  4. Google to Buy Meetroduction
  5. Guynn, Jessica (2006-07-30). "GRUNGE INC. / LIVE-IN STARTUPS COMBINE FRAT-HOUSE CULTURE WITH VENTURE CAPITAL". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
  6. Lee, Ellen (2008-04-09). "Goodbye Meetro, hello Lefora". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
  7. "Meetro Abandoned for Lefora, A Hosted Forum Solution". TechCrunch. 2008-04-09. Retrieved 2008-05-11.