The LBS space is on the move, and Useful Networks wants to be a part of that. Except it wants to take the “BS” out of LBS, said CEO and co-founder Brian Levin.
To help achieve that mission, Useful Networks just acquired Canada-based KnowledgeWhere, with experts in location-aware mobile games, social networking and lifestyle applications. KnowledgeWhere has about nine employees, boosting Useful Networks’ total staff to about 39. Useful Networks is a subsidiary of Liberty Media, which also oversees True Position on the wireless E911 side of the house.
Useful Networks’ applications include sniff, for social network integrated friend finder, a permission-based app that lets consumers locate friends in real-time with their mobile phone or from social networks such as Facebook. The cross-carrier service was released in Scandinavia in November 2007 and in the United Kingdom in May 2008, with a U.S. launch expected later this year.
The company is an aggregator for location-based services for carriers, and it will be releasing the API for sniff soon so developers can write applications based on it, according to Levin, former CEO of Mobliss.
Useful Networks is based in Denver. The KnowledgeWhere staff will keep its offices in Calgary.
