tag = "Loopt"

Mobile social network Loopt is getting into the real-time game with Pulse, which will bring recommendations for things to do to depending on where you are and what’s popular at the moment.

It pulls in data from content partners like Zagat, Daily Candy and Thrillist along with its own users’ activity to figure out which places are busy. CEO Sam Altman calls it “social local discovery” — where should you go given where you are now and what your friends are doing? They’ve also co-opted the idea of “check-ins,” where you update your location as you get into a place like a restaurant or bar.

Mobile social network Loopt is getting into the real-time game with Pulse, which will bring recommendations for things to do to depending on where you are and what’s popular at the moment.

It pulls in data from content partners like Zagat, Daily Candy and Thrillist along with its own users’ activity to figure out which places are busy. CEO Sam Altman calls it “social local discovery” — where should you go given where you are now and what your friends are doing? They’ve also co-opted the idea of “check-ins,” where you update your location as you get into a place like a restaurant or bar.

Some consolidation in the rapidly crowding location-aware mobile social app arena. TechCrunch is reporting that Loopt has acquired rival location-based app developer GraffitiGEO. We’ve pinged both companies for confirmation. Loopt co-founder and CEO Sam Altman confirmed the deal.

A newcomer to the space, Y Combinator-backed GraffitiGEO launched this summer; its first product is a hybrid review/voting iPhone app that lets users see restaurants close to them on a map, and give a quick thumbs up or thumbs down. It also supports pithy, Twitter-like reviews.

Nice buzz for mobile social networking startup Loopt: The company got name-checked on last night's "Gossip Girl" season finale, meaning hundreds of thousands (millions?) of its target audience -- young people who use their cellphones a lot -- were tuned in and may have caught the reference.

"What are you doing here?" star Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) asks her friend/ex-boyfriend Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) as he strolls into the Oak Bar at the Plaza Hotel. "I Loopt you," he responds.

Mobile social network Loopt goes live on three AT&T phones today, which was the last major carrier holdout. Loopt is now available in the U.S. on Sprint, Verizon, Metro PCS, T-Mobile and Boost. The service is free for a year and then a $4/month fee kicks in.

You can get Loopt for free on the iPhone (and there is a TechCrunch version), the Blackberry and Android as well.

We’re big believers that mobile is the future of social networking. Loopt and a handful of other brave startups are pushing the envelope on mobile social networks while the big guys, Facebook and MySpace, sit on the sidelines.

The Android version has all the standard Loopt features, including background location updating, which is used to send users alerts when there’s a friend nearby. Map mode and satellite view are available, and users can update their location info on services such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, as well as personal web sites and blogs.

Facebook and MySpace have great mobile apps. At least, they’re great if you’re satisfied with a subset of the features you get on their normal websites. But they don’t yet take advantage of location/presence features on the iPhone and other platforms. We said this summer that they ignore location at their peril, and we still believe it.

Loopt has now launched all of those features, and they’ve built a special version of the service just for TechCrunch. Once you’ve added the application to your iPhone you can see where your friends are and what they are up to. And you can also meet TechCrunch Loopt members who are near you even if they aren’t your friend yet.

I have long believed that location-based mobile social networking is central to how technology will connect us. The advent of next generation phones including the iPhone combined with people’s familiarity and engagement with social networks means that the space is – finally – ready to take off. Here is a very quick review of the past, present, and future of the space.