Nokia announced Monday that it has acquired "social atlas" service Dopplr for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition isn't much of a surprise. Last week, reports surfaced claiming the deal was already done, but neither Dopplr nor Nokia would confirm it at the time. Those same reports suggested that Nokia would acquire Dopplr for $15 million to $22 million, but the official announcement did not mention an acquisition price.
Neither Dopplr nor Nokia immediately responded to request for comment.
Dopplr allows users to create trips and share them with friends. The service also provides users with help on each leg of their trip, providing tips and advice on hotels and restaurants. Aside from a Web site, Dopplr is available as an iPhone app. It's also integrated into social services such as Flickr and Twitter.
Nokia said that it doesn't plan to alter Dopplr. In a statement announcing the acquisition, Nokia said that "the acquisition does not change the current Dopplr service." Dopplr founder Marko Ahtisaari echoed that sentiment.
TechCrunch is reporting that Nokia has just acquired social travel start-up Dopplr. The rumored acquisition price is between 10 million and 15 million Euros, which is around $15 million to $22 million.
In an effort to stop the bleeding at the cell phone giant, Nokia has been acquiring a string of smaller companies. With intense competition from Apple's iPhone and RIM's Blackberry, Nokia has been struggling to keep pace in the mobile industry. Om Malik compares the acquisition spree at Nokia to what we have seen at Yahoo in the last few years.
It will be interesting to see how Dopplr as a service fits into Nokia's strategy. It's unclear at this point if it wants the business as it exists, its technology, or its talent. Dopplr has a fairly small, but hardcore user base and has intense competition from companies like TripIt, so it is a curious acquisition choice. If it keeps the service intact at all, look for Nokia to roll out a mobile version of Dopplr out as an exclusive app on their devices.
Just a quick post, before I get on a plane, to point out that Dopplr has implemented integration with FireEagle. As I've said before, the variable resolution feature is pretty cool.
Now you can update your Dopplr location through FireEagle.
Thanks, Ross (via Twitter)
Tripit, which I mentioned in an earlier post about Planjam, is a do-it-all travel service that helps people organize their travel plans (flight numbers, car rental info, accommodations, etc.) in one central location that can be updated and accessed on the go. Today they're launching a new feature called "closeness" alerts.
Much like Dopplr, which we peeked at last month, the whole idea behind the alerts is to let you know when your buddies (Tripit calls them "colleagues") will be in town or traveling in or around the same place at the same time. The only things existing Tripit users need to do to get in on the alerts are a) have at least five other people as friends and b) make and share their travel plans either publicly, or by inviting their friends as viewers.
So how do the new closeness alerts affect privacy? What if you don't want other people to see that you're going on a trip? The good news is that the closeness alerts are setup the same way as any other trip on Tripit, meaning that if your trip is marked as private, the only other Tripit members who will be able to see it are those you invite to participate.
There is certainly a lot of potential for these services, especially if you've got a large social graph and wouldn't mind unexpectedly seeing your friends while traveling. It certainly beats a flight out just to see them, and assuming everyone uses the service, you might have a reasonable rate of success.
If you've got people close by on other trips, Tripit will now let you know with its location-based travel alerts.
(Credit: TripIt, Inc. / CNET Networks)
Dopplr, which I briefly mentioned making an appearance at O'Reilly's Where 2.0 conference back in late May, has opened up its doors today after being in private beta for the last seven months. The service is designed to let friends and other small groups share their travel plans with one another. In an ideal world, if all your friends used Dopplr, you'd be able to see when they're in town, or elsewhere to coordinate things like meet-ups or shared accommodations.
To get going with Dopplr, you simply need to plug in the dates and location of your next vacation or business trip. This information gets slotted onto your profile as a Dopplr trip, and assuming you've made friends on the service, they'll be allowed to see your schedule and visa versa. In order to add your buddies, you can invite them one at a time, or make use of your contact list from Gmail, Flickr, Twitter, or with an HCard microformat import.
Keep tabs on people's trips and Dopplr friends in one spot.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Like Facebook's news feed, Dopplr keeps a running tab on your activity and that of your friends, so you can view it in one big stream. For those not inclined to check on the site every day, Dopplr is set up by default to send you weekly newsletters with your friends' latest trip additions and journal entries, along with a list of other Dopplr users who are visiting your home city. There's also a mobile version that gives you quick access to your slated trips, as well as the option to add a new one. In many ways, it's similar to the iPhone version of Google Calendar, albeit with a little less panache.
In many ways Dopplr attempts to solve a problem that could be managed with existing solutions given a little elbow grease on the part of users. For example, my family uses Google calendar, and we've got a separate calendar set up just for trips we want to share with one another. What sets Dopplr apart is its social side, which has a number of small conveniences thrown in for both privacy and keeping track of others. One of them is frequency, which shows you which of your friends visits a place the most. You can also see if you're visiting any of your friend's hometowns, and if they'll be there when you are--which can help you avoid those "oh no, we were in the same place and didn't meet up?" moments.
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I'm here at O'Reilly's Where 2.0 conference here in San Jose, which is about to kick off. At last night's Launch Pad event, four new services launched.
Fatdoor made its official alpha launch. Originally slated for a release at last month's Web 2.0 Expo, the service opened its doors for people interested in testing the service on their way to making it publicly available. The service touts itself as being a "neighborhood-based community social network," and a place to find local people or events. We'll try to get a hands-on later this week.
Dopplr, like Fatdoor is a location-oriented social network. It's currently in private beta.
GeoCommons is a social map creation and exploration service. Users can browse and create maps filled with various data. Like Swivel (which launched their geomaps last night), there are all sorts of data sets that make a little more sense when you see them geographically instead of on a chart.
UpNext is a mix between an events service and Google Earth. Users can control a 3-D map, and see where events are visually. The service is currently in an invite-only beta.
The conference is about to kick off. Stay tuned.
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