Internet column-Dopplr

Isn't it great when you bump into a friend unexpectedly? Especially when travelling, and you didn't expect to see any familiar faces away from home?

This is the central concept behind a new web site called Dopplr
(www.dopplr.com) which aims to let frequent travellers stay in touch with one another's movements.

It makes it easy to see when people you know are going to be in places you're visiting, and increases the chance that the two of you might have able to get together.

Dopplr's makers like the idea of this serendipity of travel; the way people can stay in touch even when they don't see one another that often. Thanks to Dopplr, they know roughly where their friends are.

It's also useful for making new friends.

Dopplr's founders are famous names on the internet.

Dan Gillmor is a journalist and writer;
Matt Biddulph an in-demand coder and creative technologist and Matt Jones is known for his design work at the BBC and Nokia.

They've brought in a team of similarly talented people to help them build Dopplr using the latest web technologies.

Dopplr works by showing you a lot of complex information in a very simple way.

Your home page on Dopplr lists your forthcoming travel plans, and under each planned trip shows which of your friends will be in roughly the same place at roughly the same time.


It also knows each user's home town, which means it can tell you who will be around and at home in any particular place you visit.


Of course, to get the most from it you need to have friends who use it too. Like a lot of popular web sites these days, Dopplr is a social web application, something you use in conjunction with other people.


The interactions you have with them on the site reflect the interactions you'll soon have with them face-to-face.


That also means that coming to it new, without an existing group of friends to link up with, might be a little intimidating.

To get round that, Dopplr (which is still in beta phase - in other words, not officially open to everyone yet) lets you invite friends to join you on the site.

As they sign up, they will also be able to invite people, and you'll be able to browse their lists of friends and add mutual acquaintances to your list - and so the "social" part of the whole thing grows and expands as more people join in.

Some people won't have much use for Dopplr, especially if they don't travel much. But it's not aimed at them.

The target users are people who are moving nationally and internationally frequently, people who spend a large chunk of their business or personal lives sitting in airports.


And it's not designed for short-distance regular travel, like commuting. You tell Dopplr where you'll be for a reason - to see if anyone else will be there. Daily commutes are probably too mundane and ordinary to bother with.


+ Feeling good? +
How are you feeling? That's the question asked of hundreds of people from all over the world, and the results are at We Feel Fine (www.wefeelfine.org). You can explore the web site, dividing up the recorded feelings by age, attitude, weather conditions, gender and much more. Never before have the innermost thoughts of complete strangers been so easy to come by, and so much fun to browse.


+ Animals on the Tube +
There's an elephant on the Tube, and Ken Livingstone doesn't seem to mind at all. Nor is he bothered by the emu, the flamingo, the wombat or the polar bear. They're all Animals on the Underground and they're made by artistic enthusiasts who scour the Tube map for hidden creatures. Find out more - and buy the T-shirts - at www.animalsontheunderground.com


+ Browsing around +
:: Make a T-shirt that makes a splash
reactee.com
:: Are you a daddy type?
www.daddytypes.com

:: Christian Wolmar writes about transport www.christianwolmar.co.uk/blog/


:: How did mankind spread across the globe?
www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/