Sprint announced the launch of their new friend finder service from loopt. (see Fierce posting)

I think this one will be interesting to watch. Our research shows that services like these (i.e., adding presence including location/proximity to my contact list) are popular among young adults. I've got a piece that should be posted any day now on this topic.

Hopefully they've got some product placement lined up. One can easily imagine a Jack Bauer or Jason Bourne pulling up this kind of service on their phones. It doesn't just tap into the inner desires of young adults (and older ones for that matter) to be action heroes. "Where are you" is a pretty common question asked.

I'm certain that I will not be able to talk my friends into signing up for the service (because they barely use text messaging and won't pay the $2.99/month), but I'd like to give it a try with them. I wish they would and they may when there is an application on top of this service that appeals to them. In the mean time, I think it will really appeal to young adults and teens as well as parents who may want to track their children, but haven't signed up for as dedicated service to do do.

I'd like to mash my entire Linked-in network or Personal contact list into this application and get alerts when people are near by. How often have you been on a trip and arrived home only to learn that someone you haven't seen in two years was in the same city or even at the same conference. How fun would that be? Ok, yes, there are privacy issues and you'll certainly want to "hide" from a portion of your list.