Archive notice: This article was originally published on November 5, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
sleeq is the name of a recently launched Internet portal that is intended to find out the current whereabouts of one’s friends as quickly as possible. The site presented sees itself as a social network. Anyone registered in the community can conveniently tell their friends where they currently are via a city map. At the same time, all friends are displayed on the map, so that every “sleeqer” can quickly gain an overview of where the other person currently is and which place is particularly suitable for a meeting.
“Often, in a circle of friends, you simply have the problem that you want to know where someone currently is but cannot reach them,” explains Michael Stadelmann, co-founder and managing director of sleeq, in a conversation with pressetext. This is particularly annoying when you are sitting alone in a pub and only find out the next day that friends celebrated the mega-party just two streets away.” In such a case, it would be very helpful to have a central place where the whereabouts of the other person can be seen quickly and conveniently,” Stadelmann summarizes the basic idea of his website.
To use the location service, the user must first register in the sleeq network. After registering, the user receives access to a personal appointment calendar in which it can be entered in advance where one will be at what time. At the same time, when creating a friends list, it can be determined who should receive access to this information and who should be blocked. The user can also list in advance places that seem suitable to them as potential meeting points. If one now wants to find out where someone currently is, one has two options: Either one logs in directly on the website or sends an SMS enquiry to the website operator. Looking it up on the Internet and receiving the information by e-mail are free; according to Stadelmann, only handling by SMS would incur a fee of 19 cents.
According to the Nuremberg developer, the beta test for the portal already took place in October 2006. “After an initial phase in which the service was tested exclusively among friends, we launched the appointment calendar in April of this year,” Stadelmann reports. At present, they are pleased with the positive response to the project; more than 1,000 users are already registered. “Most people only really recognize the benefit of our service once they have tried it,” he adds. Through the ongoing development of new features such as a flirt list and an event calendar, they want to expand the range of services even further.
Further links:
- sleeq
